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Carrie has been in the welding trade for 23 years. She is contracted by the union to work for different companies, and is currently working at Cameco Corporation Branch Plant in Port Hope. In Grade 12, Carrie took a Cooperative Education program in welding. Two and a half years later, she enrolled in a 48-week Employment Insurance-sponsored program at Durham College, and completed the program in 21 weeks. During that time, Durham employed her as an instructor in the former Women In Trades and Technology government program - a program she truly admired. (She changed the tests to make them more effective, and built computer desks for the College.) She has also worked as a supply teacher and a mentor to a woman apprentice. Following her certification by the Technical Standards and Safety Association (TSSA), she obtained her Welder ticket when she joined the union in 1988. At Cameco, Carrie works thirty-six hours a week, from Monday to Thursday. She works in a nuclear-plant type of environment, most of the time with fitters. She works with different alloys, and is currently working with plastics, carbon steel, and Monel (the trade name for a high nickel alloy.) She does TIG (Gas Tungsten Arc) welding and stick (Shielded Metal Arc) welding but not a lot of MIG (Gas Metal Arc) welding because it doesn't have the strength that is required for Cameco's work. Carrie finds TIG welding the most rewarding; it is a slower, more precise type of welding. In keeping with her reputation as a perfectionist, Carrie approaches and completes every welding job as if she is the one who is paying for it. (In previous jobs, she has welded pipe at General Motors, worked on the installation of a 747 jet engine for Rolls Royce, and worked on medical gas and oxygen for hospitals.) Carrie's number one responsibility is being a mother to her daughters - nine-year-old Elizabeth and twelve-year-old Emily. Welding feeds her number one responsibility. A Welder can earn up to $31.37 per hour, or $40 to $41 per hour including benefits. Carrie loves the action of welding so much that she carries it into her spare time. One weekend, she demonstrated her creative welding skills by transforming a 14-inch pipe into a pot-belly-pig barbecue for the junior choir at her local church. The pig came complete with ears and tail, as well as feet so that it wouldn't sink into the ground. Her creative welding skills can also be seen in the decorative design on the big black iron gates that lead to her home farm; the place where she breaks in horses, where she used to keep Basset hounds, and where her daughters keep their Royal-Winter-Fair prize-winning Scottish Highlander cattle, which they call "Teddy Bear cows." She wants to weld sculptures, and has two projects in mind. One is a steel dragon overlooking the pond on her farm, and the other is a train for her partner, Bob. Carrie's personal motto for safety on the job is "You are Number One." With everyone taking that approach and using common sense, accidents should be greatly minimized. Now and again, metal will get into the welding mask or inside the safety glasses, fingers will be scratched with a grinder, or carpal tunnel syndrome will result from repetitive action. Workers have to educate themselves about the elements in the environment and wear protective gear despite the fact that safety equipment can sometimes be restrictive or uncomfortable. For example, women's harnesses (which are double the price of men's harnesses) have four belts of padding that makes them awkward to work in. Apart from the welding cable constantly getting caught in things, Carrie's main challenge on the job has been the amount of male opposition to women in this trade. She has learned to handle it with deftness, and gains respect by giving as good as she gets. One of the most supportive males in her career has been her partner, Bob, also a Welder. Bob was Carrie's boss for six and a half years on a previous job. He proposed to her at lunchtime on a job, in the presence of her coworkers. In fact, it was Bob who convinced her to participate in the Divas of the Trades poster. Along with the need for finely tuned hand-eye coordination, Welders have to be comfortable working on a platform high off the ground or in confined areas, as well as working in extreme temperatures. They may have to climb 35 feet to 40 feet in big tanks, or face heavy lifting, bending, stooping, or standing to perform work overhead. Carrie usually works on the roof, and brings a blanket to lie on in winter weather. In summer she also works in the boiler house. Carrie's advice to anyone interested in becoming a Welder is "Make sure you are going into the trade because you enjoy the day-to-day work, and not for the money. Make an effort to view the work in action, for example, on site at a workplace." She believes there will be a shortage of Welders in the next few years. The opportunities for this trade are endless. Welders can work in shipbuilding, automotive manufacturing and repair, aerospace applications and thousands of other manufacturing activities. Welding is also used to join beams when constructing buildings, bridges and other structures, and to join pipes in pipelines, power plants and refineries. Opportunities are also available in the fields of radiography and engineering. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
®1999 DURHAM REGION LOCAL TRAINING BOARD | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
