Cites Trained Workforce as a Key Rebuilding Tool
By Reporter Staff
Article Launched: 03/11/2008
A staff member at the Northern California Carpenters Training Facility in Fairfield explains a process to the governor on Monday. (Courtesy photo)
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger toured a carpenter training facility in Fairfield on Monday morning and then held a press conference to announce the launch of a new campaign designed to recruit construction apprentices to help build future public works projects included in his Strategic Growth Plan for the state.
The governor visited classrooms and spoke with participants at the Northern California Carpenters Training Facility on Chadbourne Road before formally announcing the launch of his "I Built It!" campaign.
"There is really no job out there more satisfying than working to make California even greater than it is today," he said. "These apprentices will be actually building a better California, with their own hands and skills. I know each of them will take pride in helping repair and rebuild our state for future generations."
Schwarzenegger visited a classroom in which trainees were learning math, saying that it was "great to see the enthusiasm" of the trainees.
The governor said he hopes to see the state recruit some 200,000 apprentices in the next few decades. They will be needed, he said, for the projects that will be funded by the 2006 voter-approved infrastructure bonds that authorized $42 billion for education, housing, levee repair, flood control, parks and transportation projects.
Under California law, one apprentice for every five journeymen is required to be employed on all public works jobs. In addition, the state is projected to have a major labor shortage in many of the building trades due to the retirements of highly-skilled baby boomers over the next 10 to 12 years when many of the infrastructure projects will be in full swing.
According to the governor's office, it is estimated that within the next six years the state will need more than 73,000 carpenters who will earn a median hourly wage of $23.20; 25,000 plumbers, pipefitters, steamfitters and electricians who will be paid a median wage of $22-$23 per hour and 15,000 operating engineers who will earn a median wage of more than $27 per hour. Similarly, there is an equally critical need for laborers, cement masons and concrete finishers and ironworkers to build the bridges, highways, schools, levees and housing the state will need over the next 10 to 12 years.
For more information about apprenticeship programs in California, visit www.dir.ca.gov/das/.
