Carpenters show off their trade to the young

If the goal was to inspire young people to become union carpenters, it was working.

"I'd like to build skyscrapers," said Darell Young, 18, a junior at Strawberry Mansion High School, who came with a busload of classmates to the Northeast Regional Council of Carpenters' show-and-tell on steroids at the union's training center in Northeast Philadelphia.

Young and his friends walked through 96,000 square feet of carpentry shops. They watched the union's top apprentices competing as they finish a four-year program of classroom training and hands-on experience.

"I like to put stuff together," Young said. Other students came from area vocational and public high schools.

Each year, the carpenters hold a public open house to show off their training facilities.

Former leader Edward J. Coryell, ousted in February, showed up - as part of the public. "I'm fine," he said, as men in union jackets greeted him with hugs and handshakes.

The apprentice facilities expanded to their current size under his leadership, they said.

"We built 30 skyscrapers, top to bottom, 100 percent union," in Center City, Coryell said. "Not many other cities can say that."

There are 757 apprentices, apprentice director Charles Brock said. This year's graduating class numbers 117, and from 220 to 240 are expected to start their apprenticeships this year.

That's testimony to the growth in construction, which in April grew to 6.67 million jobs, up 1.1 million, since its recession-based nadir, the U.S. Labor Department said Friday.

But growth has slowed, with construction payrolls adding just 1,000 jobs in April.

Christine Vega of Philadelphia, an Edison High School student, said she would like to do plumbing: "I helped my mom build our house."

Vega has heard it can be hard for women to get those jobs. But "by the time I get there, they'll see I'm better than the guys," she said.

The carpenters have a group that welds under water. Already certified as divers, they practice welding in a two-story tank.

In Friday's competition, apprentices had to weld two metal pieces in the dive tank, the welding sparks lighting up dark water.

In another wing, five apprentice floor-layers competed on speed and workmanship as they carpeted a short flight of stairs and installed four types of flooring.

Coryell stopped by to watch contestant Jack Norwood, 31, of Monroeville. "He's doing everything right," Coryell said. "He's a union carpenter."

Judging the flooring contest was union carpenter Mike Miller, 33, of South Philadelphia.

He was working for a mortgage firm when the industry "started going down" in the recession. Friends got him into construction.

"You can't take a trade away from somebody," he said. "If you can't get 40 hours of carpentry" on a job site, "you can always do it on the side. You can't do mortgages on the side."

Source: Philly.com