Pile Drivers Apprentice Training Program, Carpenters Training Committee for Northern California

Organized Labor

Brandon Burt, Apprentice
A friend of mine's father sponsored me to work for a company, and it went on from there. I worked for them for a year. Then I took some time off and fought wildfires for four years. I liked the challenge. It was definitely fun, but the pay wasn't as good.

It's fun working with the heavy machinery. I like construction, and everything here is bigger and heavier. We get to pick up things that are thousands and thousands of pounds and bind them together with the crane.

It's invigorating. It's exciting. It taps every emotion, from the hatred of having to get up at 2:30 in the morning to the satisfaction at the end of the day of seeing what you've accomplished.

It's scary sometimes, like getting in a tight spot and having a 5000 pound I-beam on a crane coming at you, and you are tied off so you can only move so far. The I-beam is spinning around in the air, and your job is to settle it down and set it on the false work, all the while you're balancing on a narrow beam 100 feet up in the air.