Matt Kosara, executive director of Trails to Trades, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast for Trades Day.
Kosara said the organization, which formally became a nonprofit about a year ago, brings together Local Trade Unions, Scouting America, and the Girl Scouts so young people can receive a hands-on introduction to the building trades.
Kosara also discussed how Local Unions can take part, conversations about obtaining a college education, and why he thinks tradespeople will be needed as AI worries grow.
Matt Kosara said his history with the labor movement goes back much further than the organization he now leads, which he said has formally been around only about a year. His mother was a union teacher, his grandfather a union contractor and his father worked in the finance business with Local Unions all over the country. Kosara said he was steeped in it from a young age. He was also in scouting growing up, like millions of other young people. More recently, his son got into scouting.
As a leader in his son’s scouting organizations, Kosara said he drew on his background in the trades and tried to introduce the kids to the trades and to Local Unions he knew. When the kids were young, a friend from IBEW Local 3 came to a meeting. He brought his tool bag, sat down on the floor with the kids and explained what it is like to be an electrician and what that life is about. He also talked about the benefits of apprenticeship programs.
Kosara said much of that goes over the heads of the younger kids, but their parents are often in the room and hear it. The more they hear it, the better, he said. At the end of that first meeting with his electrician friend, each child walked out with a little wire nut in his hand, and they were delighted, he said. The kids still talk about it. That is where the effort started, according to Kosara, and it has been building ever since.
Kosara said that what used to be called the Boy Scouts is now called Scouting America because it includes both boys and girls. Trails to Trades started with those Scouts and has recently expanded to Girl Scouts as a way to connect all of the groups. He called the pairing of trade unions and scouting organizations a good marriage. Scouts are self-motivated, he said, and they like to be outside and work with their hands.
The ages range from 5- or 6-year-olds who like to touch the tools and see the trucks, to high schoolers, Kosara said. This gives the organization a chance to interact with kids at multiple stages of their lives. The more times a young person hears something, the more it connects, he said.
As an example, he described visits to the training center of IUOE Local 137, not far from where he lives. The Local welcomes the kids and lets them see the equipment, including a virtual-reality crane-training machine. Kids love video games, Kosara said, so they put on the headset, sit in the seat and try to move the bucket. At a young age, he said, kids are not looking for a career. They are just along for the ride. Later, in middle school or high school, a young person who has had that experience may find something they did not know about, like someone who has driven past a building 100 times without knowing what was inside. Maybe they meet an apprentice there, he said.
Kosara said the Trails to Trades organization was formally established as a nonprofit last year with the goal of making what he had done on a small scale with Locals in his community available to anyone. Within the past year, he said, it held an event with UA Plumbers Local 130 in Chicago, which hosted a plumbing merit badge day at its training center. Between 20 and 25 Scouts attended. The training director, instructors, apprentices and retirees worked with the kids hands-on.
The Scouts learned what the merit badge involves, which Kosara described as structured, and they saw the training facility in downtown Chicago. They also learned what it takes to become a UA member and what you get, including apprenticeship, earning while you learn and the benefits. Kosara said he is talking to people in California, Pennsylvania, Florida and other places about getting similar programs going.
He said he is in New York, so much of the early focus was on the New York area and the broader Northeast. It has since expanded to the Midwest, the West Coast and anywhere it can be done. Kosara said the organization has also worked with SMART Locals, IBEW Locals, UA Locals, Iron Workers Locals and others.
Kosara said there is always a need due to a shortage of skilled tradespeople and union members. He hears it every time he hears an international union president speak. Hands-on experience, he said, lets young people weld a pipe, connect some electrical wires or sit in a front-end loader and visualize themselves in that role. He said many Local Unions and internationals have been doing a great job at career fairs and visiting schools. He hopes they can do better with guidance counselors, though he said that remains to be seen.
Trails to Trades is now involved with the Girl Scouts and young women. Getting tradeswomen involved has been a massive help, Kosara said, because a young girl can see herself in that role when she hears a tradeswoman talk about her career.
Kosara described a range of ways for Local Unions to take part with his organization. A Local can invite a group to its training center for a tour, or send a rep to a Scout meeting to talk about what the trade does. From there, it can sponsor or teach a merit badge class. Scouting America probably has at least a dozen merit badges that align well with the building trades, he said, including plumbing, electricity, surveying, welding, and truck transportation. There is also an American labor badge, which Kosara described as more of a history and an introduction to the labor movement. Girl Scouts have a STEM career exploration badge, Craft and Tinker badges, one of which he said is perfect for the operating engineers, and a crane design challenge.
Those options are not a big commitment, Kosara said, but they provide a way for a Local Union to connect with the next generation without a large amount of time or resources. Unions can go deeper by sponsoring a large-scale event that brings multiple building trades Locals together to show kids, hands-on, what their different trades entail. He called that a good starting point for any Local in any trade.
Most of the Scouts will probably not become apprentices, Kosara said. But if they go on to become lawyers, doctors, teachers or anything else, he said, they will remember meeting the Laborers Local and touring the training center. Those experiences leave a positive impression on young people, their families and other community members for a long time, he said.
Kosara said the organization's long-term goal is to help any young person. He described an event at IUOE Local 137's training center a couple of years ago, where every member of the Local building trades came in to participate in hands-on activities. Bricklayers brought bricks and a sand mix and helped the kids learn how to build a brick wall. Ironworkers brought a fake beam so the kids could walk it. The operators had a digger that could be run by remote control, and the Teamsters brought trucks.
Scouting groups were there, Kosara said, and so were people who came in off the street, as well as kids from more inner-city schools. He said he loves working with the scouting organizations, but he wants programs where anyone can come in and learn about the trades.
For too long, high school guidance counselors have focused too much time encouraging all students to attend college, Kosara said. High schools get ranked and receive grants based on the percentage of their students who attend a four-year college or university, he said, but that path is not for everybody. He wants young people to know there are other paths to success. In many building trades unions, a person can complete the apprenticeship program and also obtain an associate's degree for little or no cost, he said. Those opportunities are not made available or articulated well enough to high school students.
When people are young, Kosara said, they do not see the possible benefits when you can avoid paying a quarter of a million dollars in tuition. They also do not see the value of a defined benefit pension plan, which he said no white-collar worker has these days, along with other union benefits like an annuity fund, a welfare fund and excellent healthcare.
Kosara closed by pointing to the new fears that parents and young people have about AI and the new wave of technology. Major Fortune 500 companies are laying people off left and right, but members of the building trades will be needed for years to come. He called that a boon that everyone should look into.
More information on Trails to Trades is available at trailstotrades.org.
Every victory at the bargaining table starts with workers standing together. From the shop floor to the statehouse, hear how activists are fighting for better wages, safer conditions and a stronger future. Subscribe to the America's Work Force Union Podcast to get the latest interviews with the leaders and organizers building worker power across America.