Milwaukee mayor says youth can get out of poverty by connecting with trades

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Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson on Friday told a class of construction students trades careers were helping build the city while speaking at the WRTP|BIG STEP Milwaukee Summer Trades Academy at the Operative Plasterers’ and Cement Masons’ International Association (OPCMIA) Local 599 Milwaukee office.

Earlier that week, Johnson said he had plans to add 50 miles of bike lanes and replace lead pipes for the State of the City Address. During his speech Friday, he highlighted projects such as the Baird Center expansion, multiple city apartment complexes and an ongoing concrete pouring campaign for bumpouts in city avenues.

“Look around this city right now and its these folks and their brothers and sisters in the trades who have family supporting jobs and are building the city,” Johnson said in front of 20 students on their final day at the summer academy.

Not only were trade jobs building the city, but they were connecting youth and people of color to a greater quality of life, Johnson said, noting Milwaukee five decades ago had the highest quality of life for African Americans.

“Five decades ago, we had the highest quality of life for African Americans in the United States. If African Americans have a high quality of life, it means other groups will have a high quality of life. My thought is this: At that time you had a lot of jobs in heavy manufacturing. A lot of factory jobs were here, then dried up and went overseas with cheap labor and went to right to work states in the south,” Johnson added, noting neighborhoods left without jobs succumbed to poverty and violence.

The mayor said one of the chief ways to break the cycle and connect young people to family supporting jobs was through the trades.

“You guys have an incredible opportunity in front of you. It’s upon you to seize it,” Johnson said. “Myself, the city, (the instructors) are extending a hand. It’s up to you to extend your hand back.”

Programs like WRTP|BIG STEP’s summer academy were about infusing new blood into the trades pipeline and building a workforce for future projects such as 50 miles of protected bicycle lanes, Johnson told The Daily Reporter. Before that could happen, the city would have to find local or federal funding for the long-term project, he added.

As previously reported by The Daily Reporter, the City of Milwaukee received $14.3 million in federal money to add raised bike lanes, intersections and curb extensions in the Villard Avenue Corridor.

“We will continue to look into local funds and tap into federal sources to make that happen,” Johnson added.

A former member of Milwaukee’s Earn and Learn Program himself, Johnson said he found workforce development was an opportunity to help others and fed him until he was in a position to enter politics. ‘Earn and Learn’ is a summer youth employment program started by former Mayor Tom Barrett to provide city youth with work experience in local businesses and nonprofits, according to the city website.

“For me, I knew I wanted to be involved in service and giving back – I knew that way before I got involved with Earn and Learn. But to have the opportunity in my job in Earn and Learn working with Employee Milwaukee, I knew workforce development was an opportunity to help people. That continued to feed me until I was eventually positioned to go to politics,” Johnson added.

WRTP held classes with the help of building trades unions for over 150 students from Milwaukee Public Schools and the Racine and Kenosha area, and had students participate in different activities to find out what they want to do in the future, Jose Luevano, an instructor for WRTP, told The Daily Reporter. The program worked with around 15 schools this year, Luevano added.

From there, Big Step would connect students 18 and older to apprenticeships. The summer academy this year covered trades such as construction labor, cement masonry, plumbing and steam fitting.

After hearing the mayor, students went into the Local 599 training center and got to try cement masonry hands on both at a physical working station and virtual reality stations.