Mandy Jo Ganieany, the Organizing Director for the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 30, which covers North Central Illinois and three counties in Wisconsin, joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to discuss her experience as a woman in the trades. She also discussed why she became an organizer and a recent event to recruit more women into the trades.
Ganieany talked about growing up in a community devastated by the loss of industry and how that led her to a career as a drywall finisher. She explained how her previous experience working just to make ends meet wasn’t a living. When she became a member of the Painters Union, she regained her dignity. Ganieany discussed her experience as the only union woman on the job for several years. She talked about her watershed moment when her not being paid led to a work stoppage, and she learned the purpose of being a union member.
Working non-union, and usually as the only female on job sites early in her career, taught Ganieany how to fight. This fight led her to become the first woman the Organizing Director for DC 30. She discussed what led her to become an organizer and how she’s used her past experiences to attract more women to the trades.
In early May, Ganieany helped assemble a recruitment and awareness event in the state capital, Tradeswomen Take Over Springfield. She discussed the outpouring of support, with over 150 women in attendance. Ganieany also talked about the contractors who interviewed and hired new workers on-site. Ganieany discussed how this event is part of a bigger initiative she is helping coordinate with IUPAT’s International to increase female members to 20 percent by 2029.
For more from Ganieany, please listen to the show above.