He believes that construction in a community should be built by people in that community.

Vince Saavedra, Executive Secretary Treasurer of the Southern Nevada Building Construction Trades Unions, is our guest this week on Nevada Week In Person.

♪♪♪♪♪ Support for Nevada Week In Person is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt.

-Welcome to Nevada Week In Person.

I'm Amber Renee Dixon.

His mother was a forklift operator, and his father, an iron worker.

Raised in a family full of trades people, he'd go on to lead an alliance of 19 unions, representing about 20,000 construction workers.

Vince Saavedra, Executive Secretary Treasurer of the Southern Nevada Building Construction Trades Unions, thank you for joining Nevada Week In Person.

-Thank you.

-So I mentioned that your mother was a forklift operator.

This was when you were in Fontana, California, where you were born and raised.

That position for her, was that unique at the time?

(Vince Saavedra) Yeah, I think it was.

She worked with a couple other women in the warehouse that were her best friends, but definitely a male-dominated industry.

-Yeah.

You mentioned in a conversation that we had on the phone prior to this that she was an activist.

-Yes.

-In what kind of role?

-Well, first, in our own neighborhood.

She would always take care of kids that were hungry or things.

We didn't grow up in the best neighborhood, but she provided the best she could for us.

And so, you know, if there was somebody working late or parents were on drug problems, they would come to our house, and she would cook for them and provide them food.

And then also went like same thing at school.

If their parents weren't around, she would go and represent them.

Obviously, not the school level, but we'd go to school board meetings.

And she would talk about different things at the school board.

-Wow!

Giving a voice for the voiceless, yeah.

And I wonder how much of a connection you see between that and what you are doing now.

-I didn't realize it until people started asking me about my upbringing, and it all kind of made sense.

It's all coming together now that-- like I tell people, I get the work ethic from my dad and my fight from my mom.

-And your dad was the iron worker.

You were also an iron worker, or still are currently?

-Yes.

-Okay.

Tell me about the importance of women in the trades.

How prevalent are they already, and why is it your mission to get more women involved?

-So I think it's important now.

In Las Vegas, women in the construction industry make up about 7% of the workforce.

-Seven?

-Yeah.

It's a little more than the national average, but I think we could do better with that.

Honestly, you got to have a why of wanting to do a construction job, right?

It's tough.

It's not easy.

I think it's important to have women in the trades, especially in the union, because most women will speak up for what they believe is right.

And so oftentimes now, a lot of men just are happy showing up to work, doing the task, and going home, regardless of how they're being treated, where women will stand up for what they believe in.

On the union side of things, we love to see workers standing up for their own rights and what they believe in.

-What can you do to bring more women in?

-I think the, you know, recruitment, making awareness.

Like the Brightline project, we put provisions in there to hit a certain percentage of women to be on that project.

I believe it's 11%.

And so doing things like that in project labor agreements, that we try-- we enter agreements with contractors and developers and put different stipulations in the agreement.

But I think putting that in there helps.

Fighting for childcare, I think, is very, very important, because sometimes often it's single parents, not just single mothers, but then fighting for them to have childcare is very important because they-- obviously, with heat in Southern Nevada, we need somewhere where daycare opens up at 2, 4 a.m, so they can make it to work on time.

And obviously the cost of that goes up.

So we're looking and exploring maybe starting a nonprofit to help people in the construction industry for childcare.

-You brought up Brightline West.

You were there giving a speech at the groundbreaking among all those politicians.

You are a true believer that this is actually going to come to fruition, but I'm sure you're aware of all the doubters that are out there.

Why are you a believer?

Why do you really think this is going to happen?

-Well, last year, I flew to D.C. roughly 12 times to advocate for this.

And every time I went, it just seemed more real.

The questions were getting deeper, and the way they were asking the questions, it's almost like, Oh, these guys are serious now.

They know what they're talking about.

It wasn't, Hey, are they willing to work with labor?

They were asking about the importance of the Project Labor Agreement for that project in detail.

And I know strongly that this administration wants jobs, and union jobs, so I feel very positive that we're going to get the money for the project.

-Because it's something you have been hearing about for a while, ever since-- well, how long?

How long ago was it that you moved to Las Vegas, and why?

-24 years ago?

And I remember hearing about it then.

But I moved here for work purposes.

When I first moved here from Fontana in 2000, I worked at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

We were doing an expansion hall.

It was probably in the summer of 2000.

And so, yeah, worked here for-- moved here specifically to work in the construction industry.

-You also have spoken about that project, the high-speed rail from Las Vegas to Southern California being kind of a game changer for construction workers.

How so?

-Well, it's the first of its kind, I think, first to point out.

And then again, the women number to be involved in the project is higher than from what I know of any other PLA in the country.

-What does PLA stand for?

-Oh, sorry.

Project Labor Agreement.

-Okay, cool.

-Yeah, Project Labor Agreement.

And so, obviously, the game changer with the admissions on the road and accidents, everything's hopefully going to be decreased, including traffic.

-Yeah.

Well, so a game changer in many aspects that you're talking about, but, in particular, for construction workers and I guess maybe stability?

-Yeah, so the stability of the job right now, I mean, if you take a look today, there's no major projects going on that are new.

Obviously, the Tropicana/I-15 Interstate project is going on, but that's been going on for a while.

It's not like they're adding pieces to that project.

We're kind of in a lull right now.

We had Durango Station, the Sphere, F1, Fontainebleau all kind of finished around the same time.

So there was a big layoff in the construction industry.

So having a major, a mega project like Brightline is the game changer in putting people back to work.

-That uncertainty around your next job.

And so times like this, when all those projects do end at the same time, it's concerning for you?

Why is that?

-The mental health piece that goes along with the construction industry, not knowing when your next paycheck is going to come, or having to leave your family to travel outside of the state to go find work, which is odd because sometimes they'll bring contractors from out of state here to do work, but our workers are leaving.

And so it's difficult, right?

It's a hard thing to juggle.

I understand it, but the mental health piece of not knowing when your next check is coming, when you're leaving your family, will you miss your kid's tooth falling out?

Are you going to miss any sports practices and games because you're traveling for work to provide for your family?

It becomes a lot mentally, and sometimes folks, whether union or nonunion, just anything, when you get stressed, they turn to addiction, right, whether that's alcohol, substance abuse.

And so having the financial stability and knowing your check is going to come, where you don't always get that in the construction industry, is important for your mental health.

-At what point did you become aware that mental health was a concern for construction workers?

-Probably my first layoff when I was in the field and I started stressing about bills.

And they say it's rock bottom, right, when you're starting to borrow and beg for money, but, no, I mean, it's, it can go deeper than that.

But thank God I had a good support system and people around me to make sure that I don't hit that rock bottom.

But then I had a friend commit suicide that was in the trades, and that's when I realized that it can get pretty scary not knowing when your next check is coming or how you're going to provide or make your car payment or house payment.

So it's pretty stressful.

-And there are statistics to back that up.

-Yeah.

So we found-- we started a recovery committee, and so we started doing educational pieces.

And we found for every one death on a job, there's seven suicides in the construction industry.

-That's alarming.

-It is.

-You brought up something I want to go back to, and that is why would companies bring in workers that are not local?

And why is it even an issue that you have to demand a certain amount of jobs go to local workers?

-Yeah, you know, I find it odd because specifically on prevailing wage projects, right, like projects that are using taxpayers dollars, you know, city-, county-, state-funded projects, schools, libraries, things like that, roads, they give it to the lowest bidder.

And so oftentimes that's not a contractor who's local.

You'll get these smaller companies from out of state, and then they bring their crews with them.

So we're using taxpayers' dollars to build a project with outside workforces.

And you know, when I've had these conversations with staff of city or county, what they say is like, you know, Well, our reports show that it's 90% Nevadans.

Well, those are all self-reported reports.

There's no real way to know if they're reporting the truth.

And again, when they leave and they go back to Arizona, Utah, they're taking the money with them.

That money's not being spent locally.

-Yeah.

-So it's not helping small business.

It's not helping the community.

-Is that the best way to go about it is to put in contracts requirements, like what happened with Brightline?

-Yeah, local hire provisions, for sure.

So there's a difference between project labor agreements and community benefits agreements.

When I worked on the A's legislation, there was a lot of community benefits talk and how giving the A's $380 million is going to benefit the community.

Obviously, the construction jobs and the concession stands and those jobs, but what are they going to do for the community that doesn't get the job on the construction side or work for the A's directly?

And so working on that piece, it made me think, well, what's the difference between the A's coming in and taking taxpayers' dollars to build a stadium or the City and County taking taxpayers' dollars to build projects?

Where's the community benefit for that?

It's always in the finished product of, Well, they get to use the library or get to use the rec center.

But what about training people from that community to build those projects and giving them a pathway into apprenticeship that they've never had before?

And that's where I come up with, you know, the community should be building the community.

If you have an underserved community and we're building a prevailing wage project in that community, we should hire people from that community to build the project.

-So you're saying that with the A's stadium, that was built into the plan, a certain amount of people have to be local workers?

-Yeah, or disadvantaged businesses, DBEs.

So you could hire people who typically don't have the opportunity to bid a project like that to bid.

-But then when it comes down to the city and county level, you don't find that to be the case?

-No, it's not.

-Okay.

When you first moved here, how was it viewed to work in the trades, and how do you think it's viewed now?

-So I think it was all in the perception.

Like I remember I wasn't the best student.

I always knew I would be a tradesman and work as an iron worker.

All my family's in the same local, Local 416.

And so I obviously did my thing, but the teachers would be like, Oh, you're gonna do this, or what are you gonna do with your life?

I was like, I'm gonna be an ironworker.

And, How much do they really make?

And it kind of was that whole saying, like, Well, more than you, you know?

But I think it was frowned upon, right?

And it wasn't very good, and everybody wanted to be in real estate.

There's nothing wrong with that, or go to college and do the things.

And when I became an ironworker and I joined the union, I didn't realize that I was getting a free education through the apprenticeship.

So it's, I think just the uneducated doesn't realize what you get and the benefits of joining a union.

You graduate apprenticeship school debt free.

You earn what you learn.

You go to work and go to school.

Our apprenticeships make up roughly around 11% of CSN students.

-Wow!

-Which is incredible, but it was viewed not very good.

I think even today it's, it's written off.

I think the youth now doesn't really have a want, or maybe they just don't know what's, what the benefit is of joining a skilled trade.

-And then you had to take it on yourself to try to make this appealing to the youth, and you're using social media to do so.

Is that a unique role for you, something you're not familiar with?

-It's not, but I've become a bit of a ham.

And, you know, seeing myself and checking the likes and reading the comments and things, it's fun.

It's interactive.

And believe it or not, we've hit so many-- we've gotten so many hits from it and people interested now, but going out and talking with the current workers, young workers specifically about why they picked apprenticeship over college, and some even told us they dropped out of college to come join an apprenticeship because they needed money now.

And so they get the education and get paid at the same time.

-Wonderful.

Vince Saavedra, thank you for joining Nevada Week In Person.

-Thank you.

Appreciate it.