Soak, scrub, rinse. Repeat. Diana Sanchez used to work over 80 hours a week at two minimum wage jobs: as a dishwasher and packing boxes in a warehouse.
The Los Angeles-based single mom worked double shifts at the warehouse from 5 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and cleaned tableware from 4:30 p.m. until 1 a.m. She felt stuck.
“There was no motivation to go to work,” said the 32-year-old. “I knew I wasn’t going anywhere.”
In 2023, Sanchez heard of an opportunity with the Flintridge Center in Pasadena: an apprenticeship program that would train her for a job as an ironworker. She now makes just over $30 an hour, almost double California’s minimum wage, and she only works 40 hours a week.
Sanchez joins a growing number of Americans pursuing blue-collar careers as demand for them rises and white-collar hiring slows down. Jobs in construction, electrical, transportation, and plumbing are poised to grow in the coming years, and for Sanchez, being part of an ironworkers union offers her steady benefits like insurance. Plus, it offers her a priceless perk: more free time.
“I have time for my kids now,” Sanchez said.
Training for a new career and a fresh start on life
Through the Flintridge Center, Sanchez was able to get job training and start with a clean slate. The 16-year-old program is focused on training formerly incarcerated and gang-affiliated individuals in Los Angeles. According to the Flintridge Center, the program dramatically reduces recidivism — 90% of graduates do not return to prison, unlike the L.A. County average of 53%.
Imprisoning an individual in California costs over $130,000 a year, while the Flintridge Center costs $7,000 per trainee, said Josh McCurry, the center’s executive director. The job training is funded by philanthropic donations and grants from the state and county.
“The program is not only saving taxpayer dollars, it is providing a pathway to economic advancement for formerly incarcerated individuals who have traditionally been trapped in cycles of poverty,” McCurry continued. “Program graduates have gone on to become home-owners and taxpayers, not only building key infrastructure but fostering larger economic development in the community.”
Sanchez, who had a DUI over 7 years ago, was able to get her record expunged.
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“Starting Flintridge, it gave me more of a reason not to fall into those old patterns,” she said of committing to sobriety. Sanchez began to feel her outlook shift as she built confidence in her classes.
“It makes you believe, ‘I got this,'” Sanchez said. “Things can change and things are going to change, not for the worse but better.”
Throughout the 10-week, 240-hour training program, Sanchez was encouraged to select three specialities that she was interested in. She and her class were taught about trade unions, financial literacy, OSHA safety regulations, and CPR certification. All of them received protective workwear, and Sanchez received a bi-weekly $800 stipend to help offset the costs of taking time away from work to invest in job training.
But at the beginning, the work wasn’t coming immediately. Diana waited an additional three months before she was hired for her first job.
“I didn’t know what I was getting myself into,” Sanchez said. Her father, mother, and brother pitched in to help cover her rent for half a year while she completed training and was unemployed. “I was in stress mode, I was panicking a little.”
That patience paid off. Now Sanchez is a member of Local 416, an ironworkers’ union in Norwalk, California. These days, Sanchez starts work at around 6:30 a.m. and ends around 2:30 p.m. In addition to the more manageable schedule, union jobs pay on average 11% more than non-union roles, per the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.
As a dishwasher, Sanchez was used to working as fast as possible without thinking too much, but now she’s learning how to measure properly and be methodical in her work as part of a crew.
“If we don’t do something right, everybody messes up. It starts with one of us, the ironworkers,” Sanchez said. “It’s very important for us to be a team and to be able to talk and have communication.”
Construction work is physically demanding and dominated by men, but she likes the challenge
Although there are days she is exhausted after her eight-hour shifts, she’s grateful she no longer has to work two jobs to rent a two-bedroom house in Los Angeles County, which costs $2,500 a month.
“There are days that I’m tired and I want to give up, but I don’t,” Sanchez said. “I’m happy and proud, it’s hard work.”
As a woman, Sanchez is a minority in her industry.
“I’m sometimes the only girl out of 60 or 100 men at work,” Sanchez said. Despite sometimes feeling lonely at work, she said it hasn’t been all bad. “Everybody’s respectful, everybody’s polite, no one has made me feel bad or uncomfortable.”
The work can be grueling and physically intensive, and Sanchez understands why it can be a hard sell when she tries to convince women to sign up.
“We carry very heavy rebar on our shoulders all day, every day,” Sanchez said. “Sometimes they’re hot with the summer—the metal’s hot and it burns our skin.”
But as the only provider for her family, Sanchez wants to lead by example for her 14-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son.
“My son told me not too long ago, ‘I want to be like you when I grow up,’ ” Sanchez said. But she ultimately hopes they can live a more prosperous career than what she’s had. She’s told them, “Stay in school and get a good career so that you don’t have to work like me.”
Now that Sanchez is no longer in daily survival mode, she can envision what her career might look like as she develops her skills and leadership.
Last Friday, Sanchez was selected to represent her local union at the 15th annual Tradeswomen Build Nations conference in Chicago. This is her first trip to the city, and her union is paying for it.
She’s dreaming of bigger leadership roles as she looks toward the future.
“I see myself being a foreman, running work,” she said. “It gives me more motivation to keep doing what I’m doing and just stay focused even though I might not learn something quickly.”
