National carpenter’s union training center going up in LV

David Strow

Thursday, Sept. 30, 1999 | 10:45 a.m.

The United Brotherhood of Carpenters says its $14 million international training center in Las Vegas will be the keystone of its efforts to train North America's next generation of carpenters more efficiently.

"We have 250 centers locally, but never a national center," Douglas McCarron, general president of the international union, said at Tuesday's groundbreaking for the center. "A lot of training centers were reinventing the wheel over and over. This will be the heartbeat of the brotherhood's training."

The 176,000-square-foot center, expected to handle 5,000 trainees a year, will open near McCarran International Airport in July 2000. It will train apprentice trainers from across the United States and Canada in the most efficient and up-to-date methods of training new members. It will oversee the union's $100 million annual training efforts.

The center will house a permanent staff of 50. Its 76,000-square-foot dormitory will be capable of housing as many as 120 participants at any given time.

The union, which has 506,000 members and nearly 50,000 apprentices, said it chose Las Vegas for the center because of encouragement from local officials and the city's reputation as a union-friendly town. The union also looked at locating the center in Dallas and Denver.

"Local officials told us, 'We'd like to have the training center in Las Vegas,"' McCarron said. "Our union has been very successful (in Las Vegas), and Las Vegas is viewed as a union town.

"It's a good investment here in Las Vegas. This is a growing city, a smart place to build."

McCarron also said he viewed Las Vegas as an economical air travel destination for the thousands of representatives that will be flying in and out during the year. The city's climate also allowed year-round operations, he said.

County Commissioner Dario Herrera, along with representatives from the offices of Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Sen. Harry Reid, R-Nev., were on hand for the center's groundbreaking.

"As a county commissioner, you have a certain view of what you want in your neighborhood," Herrera told union officials. "I can't think of a better neighbor than you guys."

The center is being built because of a growing recruitment push by the union, and the national need for more skilled carpenters. The union is attempting to increase its ranks to 600,000 in the next couple of years.

"There is a construction boom throughout North America, and the biggest cry is for more skilled workers," McCarron said. "We want to organize more members into the brotherhood, and the best way to do that is through training."

The primary job of the center will be to train apprentice trainers from various locals in the most efficient and technologically advanced methods of apprentice training, as well as health and safety training. Training programs will also be held for business agents and top local representatives.

The center will also host quarterly meetings for the union's top officials throughout the United States, and will offer a two-week training program for its organizers.