Alabama Local 318 Business Manager Jay Schuelly and carpenter instructor Silvestre Rodriguez talked with hundreds of students at the popular Birmingham Promise career expo.
Signatory contractors of the UBC depend on our Brotherhood to recruit new members and then develop these professionals into exceptional craftsmen as well as jobsite, union hall, and community leaders.
We focus on three primary groups to recruit from: Those new to the industry, existing but unrepresented carpenters, millwrights, or pile drivers, and those transitioning out of the military. Talking with unrepresented tradesmen is handled proficiently by our organizing staff. Military candidates are trained through the award-winning UBC MVP - Military Veteran Program. But recruiting those new to the field takes a lot of effort to reach the younger population.
Building on the success of 2024, in 2025, Council and training staff are teaming up for an aggressive job and career fair tour at high school, technical school, and community workforce development group events around the region. In just the first four months of 2025, we participated in 25 career fairs in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee.
Just a sample of our stops includes: (AL) Birmingham Promise, Hardin County Vo-Tech; (GA) Alatoona High School, Arabia Mountain High School, Building Bridges High School Academy, Chamblee High School, Creekside High School. Hillgrove High School; (NC) Performance Learning Center, (TN) Sale Creek High School.
Students are learning about the fun, rewarding, and lucrative career of a union carpenter. Great job, everyone!
In Savannah, Bridges High School Academy welcomed instructor Zachary Jackson, Local 256 Business Manager Raymond McCullough (pictured), and Council Representative Je Ann Will (pictured). A special thanks to Local 1263 members Mosies Morales and Andrew Roth for volunteering to help at the event.
Council Reps Iram Perez (left) and Sam Asante (right) visit Georgia’s Creekside High School to meet with small groups of students exploring career options.
Students from Hardin County Vo-Tech visited with Alabama Local 1209 at the Florence Training Center to get an up-close look at a career as a pro carpenter.
Millwright instructor Eric Parker works with students on the virtual welding machine at Allatoona High School in Georgia.
Training staff’s David Dye helps North Carolina’s Performance Learning Center students try the virtual welding machine.
Local 74 carpenter Kim Hall speaks with a mom at Tennessee’s Sale Creek High School career day.