行业专家在2月22日在旧金山举行的北美铁工/影响力会议的与会者告诉参加者，希望招募更多的妇女和有色人种的承包商和工会需要采取第一步来通过批准计划。

These efforts are particularly important now, given a shortage of people to work on upcoming projects funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, said Pete Hayes, president of Wisconsin-based contractor Red Cedar Steel Erectors.

他说：“我们将尝试应对即时挑战，但这也是从通常忽略建筑的社区雇用的机会。”“我们希望积极打开这些大门，以拥有更广泛的人，增加我们的学徒计划的新兵库，并为这些高薪职位提供更多机会。”

纽约Ironworkers Local 46L的业务经理Mike Anderson表示，工人学习交易的方式发生了变化。他说，他的当地人转向针对退伍军人和有色人种的直接入境计划，并补充说，与高中和教会的伙伴关系帮助找到了学徒，同时还与承包商，政客和社区中的其他人建立了新的联系。

“When we were younger, there were a lot of trade schools out there,” he said. “Over time, they all disappeared. So, it’s up to us to get out there and show what we can do for their future.”

妇女政策研究所高级研究员Ariane Hegewisch说，批准前计划对妇女特别有益。

她说：“它向女性做广告，他们在铁工中被想要。”

Hegewisch added that the Ironworkers’ programs are setting best practices for recruiting women into the industry, giving potential tradeswomen basic skills for the job as well as knowledge of industry jargon and how to deal with any negative comments at a jobsite. After a few weeks of training, the programs place participants into registered apprenticeships. Those programs have helped the industry add nearly 100,000 female workers to construction over the past five years, including many women of color, Hegewisch pointed out.

一些工会当地人也为未来的工人转向监狱。

西雅图Ironworkers Local 86的Ironworkers Local 86的商业经纪人Heather Kurtenbach说，她自己的监禁使她无法找到工作后成为一名女商人。现在，她在华盛顿州妇女监狱中与交易相关的学徒教练计划合作。为期16周的预先批准，旨在违反释放日期的无违法囚犯教会他们建立交易技能，以及货币管理和软技能，为他们为监狱墙外的工作和生活做好准备。

Kurtenbach said the program has been so successful for her local that it changed apprenticeship standards so the women don’t need to wait for the next evaluation day, getting them working sooner. That way, she added, the women see they don’t need to return to abusive relationships or other past negative behavior, cutting recidivism.

“They’re good union members,” Kurtenbach said. “They’re involved. They come to meetings. They’re part of our sisters committee, we go out and volunteer in the community.”

For anyone interested in setting up a pre-apprenticeship program targeting women or people of color, but concerned about the costs and effort, there are ways to get help, according to James Owens, training and grants specialist for the Ironworkers union and also a member of Local 86 in Seattle.

The Ironworkers have partnered with community groups to help find people looking for work, and write grants to help cover expenses for intake, instructor wages and administrative costs. Owens said the union has obtained about $3 million in grants and placed more than 270 individuals in apprenticeships in the Pacific Northwest.

Those grants have paid off with an approximately $36-million return-on-investment in the form of workers’ wages and benefits, he emphasized.

The ironworkers have even contracted with the Urban League to handle support services and help find participants, while the union ran training.

“It’s on us as apprenticeships or local unions to reach out and begin that dialogue,” Owens said.

铁工公司的总体组织者Vicki O'Leary说，这也是重要的工人获得育儿。女熨斗人员可以在分娩之前和六到八周的薪水中获得最多六个月的产妇工资，每周$ 800。奥利里说，其他行业也效仿。

But after maternity leave, there are millions of families that rely on daily childcare. Unions and employers need to rethink how they treat workers who may be delayed by needing to drop off a child before work. Plus, center-based childcare costs rose 41% amid the coronavirus pandemic, O'Leary noted, citing a recent analysis from mortgage firm LendingTree. She said those increased costs disproportionately affected working mothers.

“冠状病毒对女性造成了巨大破坏,”她赛d. "For the most part, it was the women that stayed home and took care of the children, and all of a sudden had to become teachers."