The Daily Solution: Short path to a sustainable future

Pima County has a new construction training program … Graduates have the potential to earn big bucks … 22nd Street bridge plan on hold.

The American Battery Factory is building a new Tucson plant. A handful of new Starbucks are popping up around town. There’s no shortage of news about new development going on in Tucson.

But with the construction industry in Pima County and around the country facing a worker shortage, who’s going to build all this? 

The Arizona Building and Construction Trades Council launched a six-week training program in Tucson this fall that gives graduates an edge in landing these types of trades jobs. The free, first-of-its-kind program in the state hopes to contribute to the huge number of construction workers Arizona needs to meet demand, especially given the state’s housing crunch.

Last month, the Multi-Craft Core Curriculum program, also called MC3, graduated its first seven students. Within a few weeks, all seven were either already apprenticing or getting ready to start in trades including HVAC, pipe trades, electrical and more.

The program will bring in a new cohort of students every two months, with officials hoping that it will soon produce a steady stream of skilled workers to help address the sizable labor shortage in the construction industry, while also setting up graduates with stable, high-paying careers.

“We need more construction folks in our community. We’re seeing more people retiring than the young folks we’re having come in,” said Dan Sullivan, director of Pima County’s Department of Community & Workforce Development. “These are good-paying, union jobs that pay family-thriving wages.” 

And it doesn’t take decades to earn those family-thriving wages. MC3 Program Director Solomon Galyon, a steamfitter by trade, says he knows fourth-year apprentices in his union who are earning six-figure salaries.

Most union construction jobs require that workers participate in an apprenticeship program that lasts two to four years and includes on-the-job training to learn the trade. After the apprenticeship ends, trade workers advance to journeyman status, which comes with more work and higher wages.

After graduation, MC3 students apply to join a local union trade hall, which then puts them on the waiting list to be referred to contractors for work. While MC3 graduates aren’t guaranteed a job, Galyon said there’s a large need for tradespeople and that most who interview with a contractor are hired.

Tucson’s MC3 program is part of a national network, started in 2008 by the Building Trades National Apprenticeship and Training Committee. Students also graduate with first-aid training, CPR certification, and their safety and health fundamental certificate from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

MC3 isn’t the only construction education program in Arizona, but it offers a higher level of training than others, Galyon said. Most other programs are centered around the National Center for Construction Education and Research, which Galyon said only prepares students for jobs in “the bottom rung” of the industry.

“Those are the lowest paid jobs in our industry with the highest turnover rate, and the least skilled,” Galyon said.

Pima County’s MC3 students from the first cohort learned about all 14 construction union trades during the 6-week program.

Galyon, who is also an apprenticeship instructor, said that when graduates of these types of programs come to him, he has to unteach them certain mindsets and procedures before they can really get to work.

In addition to better training, graduates of the MC3 program also receive a leg up when it’s time to apply for apprenticeships.

This type of assistance is needed because the interview process for each trade is different and each application period takes place during different times of the year, making it challenging to navigate.

Galyon said it takes about six weeks to even get an interview for apprenticeships in pipefitting or steamfitting, which involves installing and repairing pipe systems. Applicants are also required to take a math test and complete 500 hours of work before they can begin.

“Just the act of getting into the trade is a pretty involved thing,” Galyon said. “This program helps them jump ahead of a lot of these hoops. It helps them build relationships with labor leaders and training directors and by the time they go through the interview process, they already have a foot in the door.”

The second session of the MC3 program starts next week and includes a few more students this time around. The class has the capacity for 20, but they’re starting off slow in order to work out any kinks.

But Galyon and others have big plans for the future of MC3.

“This is just the beginning of it. We’re hoping to grow and maybe bring additional union apprenticeships back to Tucson,” Pima County’s Sullivan said. “Electricians and carpenters have full-time unions here. We’re hoping to bring plumbing, pipefitting and sheet metal.”

The program is being run through Pima County’s Las Artes Arts and Education Program and is only available to people ages 17 through 22. But down the road, Galyon hopes to see it open up to dislocated workers and people reentering the community after being incarcerated.

“This is one of the programs I’m most proud to be involved with,” Sullivan said. “Hopefully it’s something we can build out and can be spread around the state to see as many Arizonans as possible getting into highly paid, highly skilled jobs.”

And there’s certainly a lot of demand for construction workers. Phoenix needs $50 billion worth of construction work over the next two years alone, which is more than the current workforce can handle.

And it’s not just in Arizona. In February, the Associated Builders and Contractors estimated that the construction industry would need an additional 546,000 workers on top of its normal hiring pace to meet the demand for labor.

That data suggests that the chances of an MC3 program graduate finding a job are all but guaranteed.

In case you haven’t heard, there’s also a shortage of quality local news. We launched the Tucson Agenda to help fill in those gaps, but we want our coverage to be as robust as possible. Help us get there.

Going green for the greenbacks: Tucson is getting a “green bank” to finance clean energy projects, Arizona Public Media’s Summer Hom reports. Groundswell Capital is setting up the first green bank in Arizona. These banks are springing up in more than a dozen states in anticipation of $27 billion in environmental funding from the Inflation Reduction Act.

On hold: The plan to replace the aging 22nd Street bridge is on hold, the Arizona Luminaria’s Teressa Enriquez reports. The bridge has a long, complicated history, and local cyclists told Enriquez they feel like they’re seeing the same pattern they always do with city projects. The initial plans are presented to the public with lots of ideas for making it safer for pedestrians and cyclists. Then when it comes time to deal with the costs, the city changes direction and sacrifices those ideas. 

Working ahead: Catalina Foothills school district board members voted last week to approve an intergovernmental agreement with Pima Community College to offer a dual-enrollment class and the district’s high schools, University of Arizona journalism student Frances LaBianca¹ reports. The course, child growth and development, will be free for students and the credits will transfer to any college or university.

Going green faster: Tucson Electric Power is speeding up its transition to clean energy, the Arizona Daily Star’s David Wichner reports. The utility plans to reach “net zero” greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. They’ll use more natural gas to replace coal, despite criticism from environmental advocates that TEP should shift directly to renewable energy sources like solar or wind. TEP’s new plan boosts its goal for using renewable energy by 50% by 2030.

Simple solution: The Pima County Sheriff’s Department is gearing up to launch a program to help find lost vulnerable adults, the Arizona Daily Star’s Charles Borla reports. The sheriff’s department will distribute wristbands to people who may have a hard time communicating, such as people with Alzheimer’s. The wristbands will include a unique identification number, along with the person’s name, address, and emergency contact information. The first opportunity to sign up for the program will be next Tuesday.

A bit of history: The Jefferson Park neighborhood is celebrating its 125th anniversary this week and KGUN’s Pat Parris sketches the history of the neighborhood through the women who founded it, including Annie Stattleman Lester, a German immigrant who named several of the streets in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

$36.85: The average hourly earning for construction trade employees in September 2023, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. With a 40-hour work week, that adds up to an annual salary of $76,648.

1. LaBianca is a student in Caitlin’s reporting public affairs class at the University of Arizona. As part of the curriculum, students are following local boards, commissions, councils and committees throughout the semester and will be reporting back on their actions. Read more about that here.