|
|
| When Laura “Low Voltage” Vergeront, a member of IBEW Local 440, entered the electrical trade 30 years ago, she was not welcomed. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” is how she jokingly characterized her years in the trades. It took her 3 years to get into the apprenticeship program. Each year they told her they would take her husband, but not her. On her first job, the journeyman called the union and asked them what he was supposed to have her do, stating there was no classification for women. “I did things like bring great big plates of chocolate chip cookies. Another time one of my journeymen told me he would have to lay me off because his wife was making him sleep on the couch until I was off his job site.”
At first Vergeront took any job she could get, working as hard as she could until she was recognized as a good worker. Nearing retirement, she now works for the Department of Corrections teaching building skills to the inmates so they will have an alternative to dealing drugs when they get out of prison. “I want to give something back,” she stated. All an all, she has enjoyed her career and is proud of being a pioneer.
|
|
