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Organized Labor
Women Building California Conference 2008
Patricia Burnham

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The View from Texas
Patricia Burnham, IBEW Local 716, Houston, Texas, electrician for 33 years, and a community activist and organizer, helped organize a women’s committee in her local. “I became an apprentice in 1975. It was extremely difficult, and unfortunately some of the same barriers that were there in 1975 are still here today in 2008. I’m an activist and co-founded Watt Women, which is a women’s committee in our union that has been going for 10 years. It is hard to get acceptance. I always try to work the hardest and the smartest, but I’m still the first laid off. Those good old boy attitudes are so entrenched. Somehow the men have to be educated. I think it's easier here in California. You have been a leader in encouraging women to get into union leadership. I have good and bad memories and have worked with some wonderful men. There were no role models back then. We had to drive the wagons and pave the way. Unfortunately many of my sisters have left the trades. Some found it too difficult; some didn’t like the harassment and isolation. I would say all in all it’s a pretty hostile work environment in Texas for women in the trade. I’m no longer in construction, but switched to electrical maintenance. “This conference is really a shot in the arm. It’s given me a real morale lift. It just brings joy to my heart to see all these sisters, the new ones who are apprentices and pre-apprentices, and the journeywomen who have been fighting as long as I have.”
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