Irma
When Irma Marez stated as an apprentice six years ago, there were no other women in her local. She suffered a lot of harassment, so she recruited other women into the union apprenticeship program and mentored them. “I wanted to give them the support I didn’t have,” she said. Martha Hernandez is one of the women she mentored and encouraged to attend the conference.

Martha
“I’ve liked doing handiwork ever since I was young. I got my father to take me along to his job. At first he didn’t want to do it. Like other men, he didn’t feel it was women’s work, but when he saw what a good worker I was, he gave in. Construction work must be something in my blood. I would drive by job sites and watch and think, wow, I want to be there someday.” The foreman on one of her first jobs was very hostile and she quit. “A lot of men want you to fail. But my mother used to tell me, ‘If you run into a rock, go around it.’” She went back to the union hall and got another assignment and is now on her way.