L-549 apprentice Marissa Collins is a November Tradeswoman Hero. She was featured on the cover of the Winter 2021 Boilermaker Reporter.
Marissa Collins, a Local 549 (Pittsburg, California) apprentice, has been recognized as a Tradeswoman Hero by North America’s Building Trades Union. Each month, the program honors four journeyworkers or apprentices who go above and beyond in their trades.
Collins, who was featured on a cover of the Winter 2021 Boilermaker Reporter and in this short video, indentured into L-549 in 2019 after completing welding classes at a local community college. She was previously a stay-at-home-mom of three and had decided to pursue a career as an electrician. She wanted to learn to weld so she could earn higher wages as an electrician; and when she discovered the Boilermakers union, she found the trade to be the right career fit.
“She’s worked quite a few tank jobs because of her welding skills. It’s not ordinary to go out and do tank work, and usually, it’s not many females,” says L-549 BM-ST Randy Thomas. “She’s become a mentor for women joining or considering joining.”
Collins credits her career in the Boilermakers for providing a major positive lifestyle change for her family. She is active in her local’s informal women’s committee, and she makes a point of representing the trade at career fairs so other young females can see the opportunities available to them in skilled trades.
“She went and planned and organized events on her own—even made outreach flyers,” Thomas says.
The Tradeswomen Heroes program was created in a joint effort between NABTU’s Tradeswomen’s Committee and Apprenticeship and Training Committee to spotlight the dedicated tradeswomen within NABTU’s affiliate unions.
