Tradeswomen Build Nations still growing support for women in trades

Deputy Director of the Mechanical Insulators Labor Management Cooperative Trust (LMCT) and committee member for the Tradeswomen Builds Nations, Gina Walsh, joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to talk about the upcoming TWBN Conference in December and what to expect while attending.

The North American Building Trades Union’s (NABTU) oversees the Tradeswomen Builds Nations Conference. The 3-day event will be held Dec. 1-3 in Washington, D.C., this year. The purpose of the event is to highlight and support women in the building trades. More than 3,000 female building tradeswomen attended the 2022 event, and they are already on pace to surpass that number this year, Walsh said. This event provides an opportunity for attendees to spend time around other women in construction, possibly for the first time in their careers.

Tradeswomen Builds Nations is the largest conference put on by NABTU, surpassing their annual Legislative Conference. It is also the largest gathering of tradeswomen in the world, full of members ranging from apprentices to business managers, Walsh said. They will also be providing workshops for women to gain different skills and learn from more experienced women in the trades. This is the first year that they will also be performing workshops that allies of the women in trades can attend.

Other workshops will still focus on the hardship tradeswomen experience on jobsites. Walsh talked highlighted a workshop that focuses on dealing with intimidation in the workplace and another that addresses women-specific safety equipment. For allies, topics will include ways foremen can support the women on their jobsites and why they should, “be that guy,” who helps support the women in the trades. For more information on the conference, Walsh said to visit NABTU.org and click the link for TWBN 2023.

To hear more about TWBN, please listen to the entire show above.