Heat and Frost Insulators
and Allied Workers Local 16
Organized Labor
Dec 2008
Candy Delarosa, Superintendent, 22 years The job site is a dangerous environment, so our number one priority is to make sure it's safe and everybody works safely. We want people to go home in the same shape as they came in, so they can keep supporting their family financially. That’s what it’s all about.
I started in the apprentice program because I loved sheet metal work. I became a journeyman, then a foreman, and now a superintendant. I learned the whole system. I’ve worked on big and small projects. I can drive anywhere in California and see projects I’ve worked on. It gives me pride. As a superintendant, I can see it from the worker’s perspective and the superintendent’s. Local 16 has an arrangement that allows union members to take leave to work as superintendents and then go back into the union working with tools. The arrangement gives workers the advantage of having supervisors who understand the industry and the demands of the work, rather than being supervised by people with only a management perspective.