1 min read

Season 3, Episode 188

The trades desperately need to recruit in the crux of retirement wave

UA Local 157

 

Guest Name:


Steve Snyder

Guest Website:


ualocal157.org

Guest Social Media:


Facebook

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Supportive Documents:


United Association Local 157 Plumbers and Pipefitters Field Representative Steve Snyder  joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast and discussed how the building trades are experiencing a wave of retirements since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and the role of apprentice recruitment to replace retired members.

Local 157 represents 1,800 members in west central Indiana and parts of Illinois. 

Snyder noted an increase of retirements among the Local’s aging workforce during the pandemic. He said the average age of the Local 157 membership is 54.6 years. Synder estimated that among all U.S. building trades locals about 2.3 million members age 50 or older have retired since the start of the pandemic. 

As a result, Synder talked about how the nation’s union building trades industry desperately needs to get younger. Local 157 has ramped up its recruitment efforts in order to grow its apprenticeship programs and stop the decline in membership due to retirement. 

He also detailed the massive influx of work his membership faces – about $3.72 billion in development in Tippecanoe County alone, which is part of Local 157’s jurisdiction.

Listen to the entire episode to learn more about these topics.


America’s Work Force is the only daily labor podcast in the US and has been on the air since 1993, supplying listeners with useful, relevant input into their daily lives through fact-finding features, in-depth interviews, informative news segments and practical consumer reports. America’s Work Force is committed to providing an accessible venue in which America's workers and their families can hear discussion on important, relevant topics such as employment, healthcare, legislative action, labor-management relations, corporate practices, finances, local and national politics, consumer reports and labor issues.

America’s Work Force Union Podcast is brought to you in part by our sponsors: AFL-CIO, American Federation of Government Employees, American Federation of Musicians Local 4, Alliance for American Manufacturing, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes-IBT, Boyd Watterson, Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, Communication Workers of America, Mechanical Insulators Labor Management Cooperative Trust, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Local 50, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Crafts, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 6, Ironworkers Great Lakes District Council, Melwood, The Labor Citizen newspaper, Laborers International Union of North America, The National Labor Office of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, North Coast Area Labor Federation, Ohio Federation of Teachers, United Labor Agency, United Steelworkers.

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