For centuries, the type of work performed by construction workers has evolved.
During the Industrial Revolution, for instance, worker alliances grew into unions built around a skilled labor pool that contractors could scale up or down with project demand.
Today, this model still stands, as it gives signatory contractors access to trained, experienced workers, and it gives those workers, who are union members, strong wages, benefits and protections.
Labor and management must work together to preserve this model, especially amid today’s workforce shortages.
Workforce studies can guide long-term planning, but action must be taken now to address the industry’s depleted labor pool.
This Mechanical Insulators Labor Management Cooperative Trust (LMCT) article outlines practical union worker construction recruitment and retention strategies that labor and management can use to rebuild the union’s greatest advantage: a qualified, well-trained workforce.
Why In-Person Outreach Still Matters
Technology and social media can support recruiting, but they cannot replace direct outreach. People build construction projects, and face-to-face communication remains essential on the jobsite and in career awareness. Digital tools can extend our reach, but growing the labor pool still depends on personal engagement, opportunity and education.
There are three primary ways to expand the union construction workforce:
- Recruit applicants into union construction industry Registered Apprenticeship Programs.
- Organize experienced, trade-related workers into the union labor pool.
- Recruit career changers in non-traditional settings.
Each path is a major undertaking, but all three rely on the same core elements: awareness, outreach and education. People need clear, accurate information that draws them toward union careers.
Where will they find it? A 30-second TikTok video, a social media post or a website can help, but recent results suggest those channels alone aren’t enough.
Path 1: Recruiting Through Construction Apprenticeship Programs
Whatever one’s view is of the education system in the U.S., schools do too little to raise awareness of construction careers and other alternatives to college. Building trades unions must build a stronger presence in schools to attract more apprenticeship applicants because these opportunities will not develop on their own.
The goal should be to reach students of all ages with materials tailored to each grade level. Union apprenticeship programs can provide some resources, but delivering the message still takes creativity, commitment, and ideally, coordinated in-person outreach.
One proven resource is TradesFutures, the nonprofit that runs the Multi-Craft Core Curriculum (MC3) developed by North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU). The MC3 Apprenticeship Readiness Program is a standardized, 120-hour construction course that introduces young people and adults to the trades and helps them apply for and succeed in Registered Apprenticeship Programs. Many International Unions recognize MC3 completion as part of their apprenticeship pathways.
MC3 curriculum areas include, but are not limited to:
- Introduction to the construction industry and its trades
- Construction tools and materials
- Construction safety and health
- OSHA-10 and CPR training
- Blueprint reading
- Essential construction math
- History and heritage of the construction worker
- Building and maintaining a respectful workplace
- Sustainable and green construction
- Personal financial literacy
Industry leadership has seen the program transform lives and communities one career at a time.
“Apprenticeship Readiness Programs give people a clearer path to rewarding union construction careers, family-sustaining wages and lifelong opportunity,” said Sean McGarvey, TradesFutures Board Chair and NABTU President. “For community partners, TradesFutures offers a proven model for economic empowerment that supports underserved populations and strengthens local economies. Together, we are creating a nontraditional pathway to the middle class and working to ensure no one is left behind.”
Educators who want to help students understand this pathway to apprenticeship can go straight to the source. TradesFutures’ national report, Scaling Placement Pathways: Promising Practices from Apprenticeship Readiness Programs, examines what helps Apprenticeship Readiness Program graduates move successfully into Registered Apprenticeship.
In 2025 alone, more than 200 TradesFutures-supported programs served over 7,700 participants across 34 states.
For program questions, educators can contact Marselina Griggs at TradesFutures at marselina@tradesfutures.org. The organization’s full staff is also available for questions, as well.
Besides TradesFutures, educators can also reach out to Insulator Union Joint Apprentice Training Committees or JATCs. The JATC is the training arm of each Local Union. To find the Insulator Union JATC in your area, visit the Insulation Industry International Apprenticeship and Training Fund’s website. The IIIATF also has resources for educators and career influencers, as well.
TradesFutures and Local JATCs are two ways to bring the union construction message into schools. Other approaches include:
- Participating in career days
- Coordinating classroom visits with school leaders
- Building relationships with guidance counselors
- Providing outreach materials, such as brochures introducing the construction trades, clear application steps and deadlines and invitations to apprenticeship open houses
- Advertising through school channels
- Attending college fairs and presenting apprenticeship as a valuable form of postsecondary education
- Sponsoring or attending youth sports and other student activities
Schools offer many opportunities to share this message, and to be successful, it takes effort, creativity and persistence.
A larger apprenticeship applicant pool makes this investment worthwhile. However, school relationships take time to build, so union leaders must stay consistent and committed.
Path 2: Organizing Experienced Trade Workers
The second form of recruitment brings skilled, trade-related workers into the union labor pool.
This is a demanding task, shaped by the diversity of each local workforce. Organizing is essential to building a strong union workforce. It involves identifying and mobilizing workers who want positive change in their workplaces. Effective organizers engage workers through one-on-one conversations, group discussions and workplace events.
International Unions have established organizing programs with strategies tailored to their crafts. Unlike apprenticeship recruitment, organizing focuses on experienced workers and must account for differences in culture, language and experience, among other challenges. Even so, the core goals remain the same: awareness, outreach and education. Just as apprenticeship programs rely on trained apprenticeship professionals, organizing depends on skilled, well-prepared organizers.
Organizing is a proven way to expand the labor pool available to signatory contractors. Experienced workers who demonstrate journeyman-level competencies may join the union without completing an apprenticeship. Those who want to sharpen their skills can pursue additional training. Workers who do not yet qualify as journeymen can enter the Registered Apprenticeship Program at the appropriate level and keep advancing.
Path 3: Recruiting Career Changers in Non-Traditional Settings
The third path combines elements of apprenticeship recruitment and organizing. Many people assume the ideal route runs directly from high school to apprenticeship, but many apprentices take a different road. A number of men and women enter the building trades after working in related or unrelated fields, often into their late 20s, 30s or beyond. This pathway falls between apprenticeship recruitment and organizing, and it deserves serious attention.
The same principles apply – awareness, outreach and education. Understanding where and how career changers get their information reveals recruiting opportunities that call for creative, sustained outreach, including:
- Continued school outreach, which reaches parents and relatives as well as students
- Community events
- Cultural and community organizations
- Local sporting events
- Public advertising and trade-awareness campaigns (i.e., digital/online, print, broadcast)
- Word of mouth through family, friends and neighbors
- Messaging for people exploring careers because of family needs, such as healthcare benefits
- Social clubs, gatherings and county and state fairs
- Civic and political events
- Faith communities, such as churches and synagogues
The internet and social media are valuable tools, but traditional, in-person outreach is still needed. Distributing application information in places that might seem unusual, such as a county fair booth or a church bulletin, is exactly the kind of range effective recruiting requires.
H2 Why Labor Pool Retention Matters as Much as Recruitment
Recruiting is essential, but it must be paired with retention. The time, effort and money invested in recruitment is lost if workers do not stay.
Retention is often overlooked because fluctuating construction demand makes it harder to manage than recruitment. During slow periods, workers who cannot find work may leave the labor pool for opportunities elsewhere. Highly skilled, dependable workers, who are the kind of employees that contractors want, are especially likely to leave because their abilities are in demand elsewhere.
This creates a difficult challenge for labor and management alike. The solutions may be complex, but ignoring the issue is the worst option.
Labor and management must share the responsibility for keeping labor pool members steadily employed. The burden should not fall solely on Local Unions or on contractors. Solutions must be developed together. Even when demand is strong, both parties must prepare for the slower periods that will inevitably follow. Maintaining employment through every market cycle is difficult, but several strategies can help preserve the labor pool in strong and weak markets alike:
- Expand and strengthen maintenance agreements to create steadier, more flexible work
- Developing new sources of work
- Work proactively with clients to identify needs and opportunities they may not have considered
- Bring more contractors into the market to pursue work existing contractors do not perform
- Use creative, strategic planning that addresses the concerns of both labor and management
These efforts will test the strength of labor-management cooperation in any region, but everyone stands to benefit. Leaders on both sides reached their position through initiative, creativity and proactive action. The labor pool they recruited, trained and funded together is too valuable to lose.
LMCT Jobsite Leadership and Marketing Program
One new tool to help with retention for the union mechanical insulation/firestop industries is the Jobsite Leadership and Marketing (JLM) program.
This online tool helps foremen and superintendents recognize leadership opportunities on the jobsite. One of the most overlooked opportunities is also among the most obvious: delivering exceptional client service to create future business.
No one is better positioned than the existing crew to demonstrate its value to the customer. Rather than providing step-by-step instruction, the course builds awareness of how jobsite leaders can make a greater impact.
The online course takes approximately three to four hours and can be completed over multiple sessions.
Although the program is online, participants are strongly encouraged to work through it with a facilitator. Facilitated sessions promote discussion, collaboration and the exchange of real-world experiences, helping the leadership team apply the material more effectively.
Below is a brief program overview and access link. Please feel free to share this information with HFIAW Local Unions and signatory contractors.
Course Purpose
This course helps Labor Management leaders recognize effective leadership behaviors and develop a business-focused mindset. It aims to strengthen leadership skills, improve workforce performance and introduce key marketing concepts. Applying these skills can help leaders use their professional relationships to create new opportunities and expand the market.
Course Overview
As a foreman or superintendent, you can serve as an ambassador for the mechanical insulation trade through the relationships you build on every jobsite, regardless of its size. Your role extends beyond completing the work. By demonstrating the quality and professionalism of the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers and its signatory contractors, you can strengthen awareness, encourage repeat business and expand opportunities throughout the mechanical insulation industry.
Fill out the form below to access the JLM program.
Jobsite Leadership and Marketing (JLM) Program
H2 People Build Buildings
A healthy labor pool that gives contractors access to highly trained, experienced professionals is fundamental to union construction. Recruitment and retention should be central to every organization’s business model.
Recruitment is an overused term and a misunderstood practice. Effective union construction recruitment takes sustained, creative effort at every level, with personal interaction at its core. Social media and digital outreach should support that work, not replace it. Construction depends on human relationships. Social media does not build buildings; people do.