Local 433 (Tampa, Florida) members talked about the excellent opportunities the union has to offer as they recruited students during the second Annual Central Maintenance and Welding Sparks & Smoke Scholarship Welding Competition in Road Lithia, Florida. Around 60 students turned up the heat during this year’s competition. And when the teams weren’t competing, they wandered through the many sponsored booths to converse with a multitude of welding schools, organizations and businesses that turned out to support the event, including Boilermakers Local 433.
Local 433’s booth offered an opportunity for students to test their welding skills using a virtual welding machine and to talk with the local’s leadership, business agent and secretary-treasurer Tim Rollins, recording secretary Barbara Martin and lead instructor and recruiter Cranford Lee Kemp, about the Boilermakers National Apprenticeship Program and the career it could offer them.
“It opens doors for the students to have an avenue to get to the Boilermakers,” says Tim Rollins. “We had a good turnout of possible applicants. Everyone we talked to was ready to sign up.”
Rollins is hopeful that more Boilermaker locals will come out to next year’s event, and he expressed the importance of Boilermakers being at this event and similar events.
“The welding students came from all over,” he says. “We had a welder that came down from St. Louis. The Navy sent him, which could be a benefit for the Helmet to Hardhats program. It would benefit all Boilermakers to come down.”
If any local is interested in participating in the 2024 competition, Rollins says he will provide information on how to get involved.