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g o l d e n s tat e f r a m e r s profile
Carpenters JATC’s Orange County
Training Center, says Viano’s commit-
ment to the Helmets to Hardhats pro-
gram is unlike any other contractor’s to
date. He explains that the program con-
tacts members of the military who are
about to leave active service and
inquires if they would be interested in a
career in construction. Those who
respond are put into union apprentice-
ships near where they live.
“Sometimes, we get the information
before the person actually gets out of
the military,” Westmoreland says.
Normally, unions will seek out con-
tractors to see if they would be willing to
hire these apprentices once their train-
ing is complete, but Golden State
Framers takes a different approach.
“Gary’s taken it one step further,”
Westmoreland says. “Instead of waiting
for the local union to contact the con-
tractor, he’s asked me for the names and
numbers of people in the area. He’s
taken the initiative to get the list of
names of people who are interested in
carpentry.”
Westmoreland says Helmets to
Hardhats can be a valuable resource for
contractors and the unions. “Recruiting
is one of the problems for a lot of con-
tractors, finding suitable candidates for
the union,” he says. “There’s a lot of pre-
conditioning the military does that a
contractor doesn’t need to do.”
The program is also a boon for those it
places in jobs, he adds. “It gives them a
source of employment opportunities in
the construction industry,” he says.
“There’s a lot of people who spend time
in the military and they really don’t know
what they were trying to get out of it.”
In Orange County, Westmoreland
says he receives a list that ranges from
less than 10 to about 40 possible ap-
prenticeship candidates every few
months. Since Viano started participat-
ing in the program, Westmoreland esti-
mates he’s referred 40 to 50 of those
directly to Golden State Framers. Viano
says he’s hired more than a dozen of
those, and would like to continue.
“The ones that we have hired are all
still here with us,” Viano says.
Thirst For Challenges
The carpentry market in Southern
California is brimming with competi-
tion right now, Viano says, thanks to an
influx of contractors fleeing residential
construction. Despite the fact that
many of these refugee contractors skew
wages by taking jobs for far too little, >>
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