Rchard Bermack Photography

BillHodges-P1030333

Heat and Frost Insulators Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee

Organized Labor

Bill Hodges, Coordinator
I teach them that they are professionals. On some of the new construction work, they may be able to get by with the worn-out jeans and the torn shirt, but the days of the blue-collar worker who drinks a beer for lunch and whistles at the ladies are over. When they're working on a retrofit in a place like Intel, and the office guys are walking around in suits and the gals are in professional outfits, we don't want our union members looking like stooges. They don't have to wear ties, but they have to present well. They are representing themselves and the union. We impress upon them that the workers who know how to dress and act appropriately will be the ones who get the work and the ones who can survive hard times.