20 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • NOVEMBER 2018
PERSONAL FINANCE
UNITED WAY PROGRAM HELPS WORKERS GET UNION APPRENTISHIPS
“I took him on all sorts of auditions,”
she says with a pleasant laugh. “I told
him, ‘You’ll hear a million ‘no’s’ before
you hear that one wonderful ‘yes.’”
The early Nike gig pushed the youngster’s
earnings to more than $30,000
that year. It was a promising start. Over
the next few years he snared roles in
commercials for Metro PCS and Nickelodeon;
was cast in a couple of small
movie roles; and landed an appearance
on Law & Order SVU.
The clock, however, was ticking.
Garner turned 24 last year and took
stock of his career as an actor slash
model slash dancer.
“I didn’t really know where I wanted
to go in life,” he says. “Everything I was
doing wasn’t totally fulfilling. I wanted
to reach out and help people. I wanted
to bring light into their life.”
A casual conversation with his father
introduced him to YouthBuild, a vocational
training and job-readiness program
funded by the U.S. Department of
Labor operated by United Way of Long
Island. Students learn soft skills like
dressing appropriately for the worksite,
and methods of resolving conflict.
“The atmosphere in YouthBuild was
very encouraging,” Garner recalls.
“Everyone around me was also trying
to better themselves. It felt like one big
family.”
After completing YouthBuild’s program,
Garner enrolled in Opportunities
Long Island, a vocational training
program, whose website says it “connects
individuals from underserved
communities to union construction.”
About 40 young Long Islanders,
ages 18 to 24, are being trained as
apprentices this year at OLI. Tuition’s
free, although students buy their own
books. The program shuttles students
among eight or so union halls, where
they learn directly about the trades
they might enter.
Garner made a beeline to International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
(IBEW) Local 25, the electricians’
union. He listened to everything he was
told about how to use the tools of the
trade safely, and about what it means
to be a union electrician.
He knew that OLI graduates move into
union apprenticeships. Apprenticeships
last five years, during which time
workers earn about half pay – roughly
$50,000 a year in pay and benefits. After
the five-year period their paychecks
double to about $100,000.
“When I first heard about OLI, I
thought: No Way,” Garner says. “How
could you get into a union in such a
short amount of time?”
The answer: demographics.
“There is an aging workforce out
here on Long Island,” says Stephen
Muzyka, United Way’s director
of housing and training services.
“Unions are calling me all the time,
asking for apprentices.”
After he was hired by IBEW, Garner
went back to both training programs
and shared the good news with his old
friends.
“Blair is a nice young man, very motivated
and presents very well,” says
Jenette Adams, YouthBuild’s program
director. “He works very hard, always
with a smile on his face. I was delighted
he got hired.”
One of the young man’s first jobs
was installing and maintaining traffic
signals.
“We fixed a traffic light in Deer Park
that had been broken a while,” Garner
says. “People honked and cheered
when we were finished because we’d
solved their problem.”
His mother is proud and, naturally,
has her own perspective.
“For Blair to go from acting into being
a union electrician is so exciting,
even a little far-fetched,” she says.
“When he was a kid, I couldn’t get him
to fix a fuse box.”
continued from page 19
'Unions are calling me all the time, asking for
apprentices.' - Stephen Muzyka, United Way
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