Service + Solidarity Spotlight: Insulators Help Raise the Bar for Workers in Baltimore

Working people across the United States have stepped up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our regular Service + Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.

Nearly five years ago, the Baltimore-D.C. Metro Building Trades Council established the Raising the Baltimore Apprenticeship Readiness (BAR) Program to serve Baltimore residents. Heat and Frost Insulators (HFIU) Local 24 and the international union played a role in the creation and execution of the Raising the BAR program. The program includes 120 hours of training taught over three weeks and provides an investment in the next generation of union construction workers, while offering a ladder of opportunity into the middle class for local workers and their families through a pre-apprenticeship program. “It is important to be part of giving minority and low-income students a chance,” said Local 24 Business Manager and Training Coordinator Brian Cavey. “As a trade, as a union and as an industry, we have to be dedicated to growing.”