How to Get Into a Union — The Three Real Paths

There's a generation of journeymen who came up in shipyards and refineries during the boom years — kids in their late teens and early twenties making real money before they understood what a pension was. The work was there. The unions were there. Nobody walked them through how to actually join.

THREE REAL PATHS IN

1) Direct application to the local hall. Walk in, ask for an application, fill it out, and get on the out-of-work list. You may sit. You may dispatch in a week. It depends on the local and the work.

2) Registered apprenticeship. A formal program — usually three to five years — that combines paid on-the-job hours with classroom training. The hardest path to get into, and the path with the strongest finish.

3) Salt-in or organize-in. When a non-union shop is being organized, workers there can come into the union as part of the contract. Less common, but real.

THE BROTHER NAMED GARY

There was a brother in the trade named Gary who walked into a hall at twenty-two with no connections, no family in the union, and no clue what he was doing. He filled out the application, sat for six weeks on the bench, took the first call that came in, showed up early every day on that first job, and never had to wait on the bench again.

That is the lesson. The hall does not owe you anything when you walk in. You earn the second call by how you handle the first one.

WHAT TO BRING

Driver's license. Social Security card. Any certifications you already have (OSHA 10, welding tickets, CDL, forklift). A clean drug test. A pen. Patience.

— UnionBoomer.com