Nontraditional Employment for Women’s (NEW) annual Equity Leadership Awards Luncheon on May 1 marked the beginning of a new chapter for the gender-equity based pre-apprentice program under the leadership of its new president, Leah Rambo.
In February, NEW announced that Rambo would be taking the helm of the training program designed to increase the number of women employed in the trade careers, specifically those construction, utility and maintenance trades that offer strong wages, benefits, training, and potential for advancement.
“I’ve always believed in the supported news mission training, supporting providing women with good paying careers, careers that women have been traditionally excluded from,” Rambo said at the luncheon. “I’m so excited about the possibilities ahead and I look forward to guiding, strengthening and evolving new as they thrive in the years ahead.”
With over three decades as a sheetmetal worker and in training and policy in the labor movement, Rambo shares firsthand experience with many NEW graduates. She is the first woman of color and tradeswoman to serve as president of NEW.
During the luncheon she spoke to the challenges that women face in these trades, which she listed as lack of career education, outreach from apprenticeship programs, discrimination, harassment, consistent hours, gender-based violence and not enough supportive services such as transportation, housing, childcare and access to food.
“Working women in this great city and working men in this city should never have to choose between having children or having a good paying job to support them,” Rambo said.
The NEW graduate that the organization chose as 2024 Tradeswomen Honoree, Racquel Hazlewood, said for her the barriers hinged on lack of opportunity. She had struggled to find a job related to bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering until she discovered NEW as she was looking into union apprenticeships.
After an interview with NEW, she found herself quickly in a classroom. Five months later she had gotten into an apprenticeship. When she was struggling in the apprenticeship after being laid off from several jobs in a string of bad luck, encouragement from NEW graduates helped her persevere.
Hazlewood’s perseverance recently paid off when her foreman needed to take a leave of absence and asked her to lead the site as interim foreman.
“This experience showed me that my foreman and contractor were confident in my skills and recognized my ability to keep the job flowing like a well-oiled machine. All of the adversity I experienced turned into an opportunity to show my growth,” she said.
While the luncheon serves one purpose as a fundraiser for the training organization, Rambo said that beyond funds, she was asking the union trades training directors in the audience to give NEW graduates the opportunity to develop in their trades like Hazlewood.
“My apprenticeship directors and coordinators, I ask that you commit to increasing your recruitment of new graduates and pre-apprenticeship programs,” Rambo said.
