TACC Field Trip to Hampton Lumber!

In January, our Trades and Apprenticeship Career Class (TACC) had the opportunity to take a field trip to Hampton Lumber and tour their distribution center on SE Front St. here in Portland. TACC students got to have an inside look at what a day in Hampton Lumber’s transfer station is like. We saw the process as the workers cut the lumber to various sizes, package the lumber, and then load it on the rail cars. Students also talked with the staff about entry level work and the various jobs that are available at Hampton Lumber.

Founded in 1950, Hampton Lumber is privately owned by the Hampton Family with its headquarters here in Portland, Oregon. They own and operate 9 sawmills in Oregon, Washington, and even British Columbia. Hampton is deeply invested in each of the communities where they employ workers.

In each community, Hampton Lumber prioritizes affordable housing, youth and education, and the arts. They support organizations and causes by donating time and lumber to Habitat for Humanity, advocating for the arts in urban and rural communities, donating to the Oregon Food Bank and Adopt-a-Family, and working closely with local schools and colleges to not only provide workforce training opportunities, but create and maintain important relationships with the communities’ youth.

In addition to being patrons of their community, Hampton Lumber is an exceptional place of employment. Their employees are excited about the work they do and look forward to coming to their jobs every day. This enthusiasm creates a positive work environment that encourages worker retention. Because they care about their employees, Hampton Lumber provides many opportunities for education through training and apprenticeship.

Hampton Lumber is also dedicated to increasing women’s participation in the lumber industry and in the skilled trades in general. Hampton promotes a supportive workplace environment for everyone, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, protected veteran status, or disability.

Those interested in finding out more about Hampton Lumber are highly encouraged to reach out and give them a call. The folks at Hampton Lumber are truly friendly and are more than willing to answer all of your questions as well as possibly show you around their facilities. Make that first move and come in to experience what Hampton Lumber is all about.

Don’t forget to check them out on Facebook!

Hands On Metal Fabrication at ADX Portland

TACC students learning how to assemble their frames

On Thursday, February 8, 2018, Oregon Tradeswomen’s Trades and Apprenticeship Career Class (TACC) had the opportunity to get hands on experience with metal fabrication! Metal fabrication is the altering of raw materials by way of bending, cutting, welding, etc. in order to build structures. This hands on day happened at ADX Portland, a makerspace where people can share tools and knowledge, and take advantage of a huge facility with a wood shop, metal shop, print shop, and jewelry shop.

TACC students learning how to operate a Horizontal Band Saw

Our students were tasked with creating their own plaque stands. They were each given 5 sections of channel iron and learned how to cut and grind their materials. They used a horizontal band saw to cut, and a disc grinder to grind down and clean up the edges. Students learned the ever valuable lesson, “measure twice, cut once,” a carpenter’s proverb that also applies to metal fabrication. This rule is important to consider because it is, of course, faster to double check your measurements than cut incorrectly and have to waste time and resources making the cut again.

Measure twice, cut once!

Once each of the students prepped their materials, the class learned how to “tack weld” their iron segments together to make a frame. A tack weld is just a series of small welds spaced some distance apart. This type of weld is usually only a temporary step in the welding process, but it holds the assembled components in place and ensures their alignment which is all that is needed for a small project like a plaque stand. After the welds are complete, the students cleaned them up by gently using an angle grinder to smooth out any protruding material.

TACC students tacking their segments together

It was clear that our students were enthusiastic about learning to craft with metal and it was an added perk that they got to take home something that they build with their own two hands! Special thanks to ADX for allowing our students to learn about another great option for a career in their beautiful space.

Our students’ final product!

Oregon Tradeswomen Grads Working for Living Room Realty

Recently, Living Room Realty was searching to fill a brand new in-house Maintenance Coordinator position and out of the 7 women who applied, two stood out above the rest: Ash Jimenez, an Oregon Tradeswomen graduate, and Kathleen George, were so well received that Living Room Realty created a whole other maintenance position in order to keep them both!

Ash, whom Sarah remembered from the tradeswomen fashion show at Oregon Tradeswomen’s Annual Career Fair, took the role of Maintenance Coordinator and Kathleen, an experienced general contractor of 20 years and the owner of her own painting business, is their new Maintenance Manager.

Ash Jimenez at Oregon Tradeswomen’s “Build With Us: A Blue Collar Gala”

Living Room Realty is a female owned and almost all female-staffed local company that is committed to giving back to the community. Their owner, Jenelle Isaacson, and her Executive Assistant Sarah McBee met when they served together on the Board of Directors for the Rock and Roll Camp for Girls and are involved in a variety of philanthropic endeavors around Portland.

Living Room Realty’s commitment to giving back to the community shines through in their work:  they have a designated charitable giving fund called The Loving Room Fund that benefits three nonprofits for the year. The fund is currently committed to helping:

  • P:ear, a nonprofit that creatively mentors homeless youth.
  • Urban Gleaners, an organization that is dedicated to reducing waste by rescuing edible surplus food that would otherwise be thrown away and donating it to hungry children and their families.
  • Oregon Wild, a nonprofit that works to protect and restore Oregon’s wildlife, wild-lands, and waters.

We want to extend very well deserved congratulations to Ash and Kathleen as they embark on this new journey! BIG thanks to Living Room Realty for their support of Oregon Tradeswomen and the communities that make Oregon a wonderful place to live.

A World of Difference Features Oregon Tradeswomen

MediaLab, an applied research and media production organization affiliated with Pacific Lutheran University’s School of Arts and Communication, launched a new series, “A World of Difference,” where the producers explore gender, race, national origin, and ask the question, “How do we value difference?

Each of the four episodes focuses on new topics in different cities. The second episode was filmed in Portland, and investigates gender, specifically in the construction industry. Women comprise a mere 3% of the national construction trades workforce, but in Oregon, nearly 7% of apprentices in the skilled trades are women.

Oregon Tradeswomen’s Executive Director, Kelly Kupcak, and Director of Training, Amy James Neel, had the opportunity to speak with MediaLab about this disparity and what Oregon Tradeswomen is doing to bridge the gap.

We are humbled by the opportunity to share with the world the work Oregon Tradeswomen does. We applaud MediaLab for their efforts to open a discussion recognizing the experiences of people in marginalized communities and what can be done to make a difference.

The series premier of “A World of Difference” took place on Saturday, February 17, 2018 at the Seattle Public Library. You can find the episodes available for rent or purchase on Vimeo.

Senator Ron Wyden Talks Infrastructure at Town Hall

Oregon Senator Ron Wyden held a press conference on Thursday, February 1, 2018, about the dire need for federal funding to fix roads and bridges not only in Oregon, but across the United States.

The press conference took place at the Marquam Bridge, one of the bridges in Multnomah County in need of structural reinforcement in the case of a seismic event. Nearly all of Oregon’s major construction unions were represented at the event, as well as Oregon Tradeswomen’s Executive Director, Kelly Kupcak.

Pictured from Left: Kelly Kupcak (Oregon Tradeswomen), Nicole Rappaport (Local 701), AJ Banuelos (Local 737), and U.S. Senator Ron Wyden

Senator Wyden addressed President Trump’s purported intention to raise $1.5 trillion to fix our nation’s failing infrastructure. Senator Wyden said, “The way you improve bridges and roads and do all the great work these people do is with real federal dollars… We still haven’t heard from the president and the Republicans how that’s going to happen.”

Sources from the Trump administration claim that only $200 billion would come from the federal government, putting the pressure on state and local governments to raise the rest of the money. Since 2003, the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) has been making major efforts to fix Oregon’s bridges and even with the $5.2 billion plan approved by state legislature in 2017 to invest in our infrastructure, federal aid is needed to truly strengthen our roads and bridges to the extent needed.

In 2009, Senator Wyden authored the bi-partisan Build America bonds program that successfully generated $181 billion for public works projects and created 3,500 jobs in Oregon. Now, the Senator is calling on the current administration to help fund the rebuilding of the nation’s infrastructure by endorsing a plan to use some of the $2.6 trillion coming back into America’s economy as a result of the tax cuts implemented in December 2017.

Investing in infrastructure not only improves our local and national economy by creating jobs and reliable mobility for people and businesses, but it is also a critical issue of public safety. We applaud Senator Wyden for his efforts in making sure that funding to maintain a strong infrastructure for our country is a priority for our government.