Editor’s Note: LaborPress is proud to present the 2022 Outstanding Apprentice of the Year Awards for Long Island and New York City on Thursday, June 16, hosted by Teamsters Local 282 in Lake Success, NY. Today, we continue our ongoing series leading up to this year’s gala event introducing each of those fascinating and inspiring award-winners to the wider labor movement.
New York, NY – Adis Malevic of IUOE Local 94, is a recent graduate of the union’s apprentice program. A child of refugees from the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the family settled in Midwood, Brooklyn and then in Marine Park when he was very young. At 30-years-old, the father of two began the program with a head-start — he had previously obtained his refrigeration license. LaborPress spoke to Malevic to find out about his life and what he has learned while in the program.
LP: How did you find out about the apprentice program?
AM: I got my refrigeration license way before I even applied for [a particular] job. Somebody that used to work at my previous job, a superior, knew that I was looking to get an engineering position. He reached out to me knowing that there was a position in Queens. I went for an interview and I got the job. I didn’t know until I got the job that I had to be in school to be an apprentice.
LP: What skills have you learned?
AM: In this trade, you have to be kind of well-rounded in everything. So, to be well-rounded [means] motors, plumbing, electrical — anything building-related since everything falls on us. Any complaints the tenants have we have to respond — we’re the first and last resort for the building.
LP: While you were in the program and working on a job, what was it like applying what you were learning to your work?
AM: I’m a firm believer that I learn more from experience. But it’s great to learn things in school and [then] bring it to work and apply it to work, which is where I learn the most, I believe. So, anything I learned in school — like anything about motors and the continuity between the windings and the motors — I would come to work and shut the motor off, and I would test just to validate the education I just learned the previous day. Just so I know…to connect real world and education. That was the biggest benefit of being an apprentice and going to school, having a job and being an apprentice at the same time. You could apply your education directly translated to work.
LP: And where are you working now?
AM: SkyView Center in Flushing, Queens. It’s a mall with six residential buildings on top. It’s a huge complex.
LP: What are your thoughts about being in a union?
AM: I think unions are great. They gave me opportunity I never thought I could have and it has set me up for a career I enjoy. I like the stability of it. I don’t have to worry about not having a job tomorrow. The things I learned from this union in the apprenticeship program, I could apply to any building in the city — so, that’s a big plus in my book.
