When Allie Perez landed a marketing job at a San Antonio plumbing company, she had no idea it would change the trajectory of her career.
As she worked her way up to managing marketing and operations, Perez realized she needed to better understand the work the company’s plumbers actually did so she could communicate more effectively with them.
She enrolled in a plumbing apprenticeship program at St. Philips College and became fascinated with the skilled trades and the plumbing profession in particular.
“I was really fascinated with water, keeping water safe. Plumbers protect the health of the nation, you know?” she said, repeating the tagline on a poster produced by American Standard fixture company in the 1920s that hangs in the lobby of George Plumbing, the third-generation family-owned company where she works.
The only woman in the program, Perez wondered where the other women were. She searched online and found organizations in other cities and states that supported women in the trades, but nothing in Texas.
“So I decided I was going to start something,” she said. She put together a simple website, then broadcast it over social media. “That way anyone else looking would have at least the beginning of some networking.”
For years, Texas Women in Trades was Perez’s side hustle, while she worked full time at George. This week, she dropped to part time so she can devote more energy to her nonprofit. Her goal is to entice more Texas women, young people and people of color into the skilled trades — and make sure they flourish there.
The connector
These “hands on tools” jobs in plumbing, electrical, construction and similar industries offer good paying, recession-proof work, Perez said — yet San Antonio women make up just 4% of the skilled trades workforce. To expand that pipeline, Texas Women in Trades offers networking and mentorship opportunities, connections to apprenticeship programs and trade schools and consulting for companies seeking to hire more women.
Women in Trades now has about 500 members, Perez said, and it has funneled more than 20 people into trade programs within Ready to Work, San Antonio’s taxpayer funded workforce development program. Perez is a mayoral appointee on the Ready to Work advisory board.
Dora Jasso-Robles saw an ad for Women in Trades’ two-day Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) certification class in her Facebook feed. She had just completed a plumbing internship and thought, “Why not?”
She earned her certificate, and Perez connected her to Ready to Work, which is helping her job hunt. She’s also wrapping up a welding certification and connected the two other women in that class to Women in Trades.
“Allie is really good at keeping up with me and seeing how I’m doing,” Jasso-Robles said, which in turn inspired her to help others. She’d like to get even more involved by teaching the OSHA class in Spanish. “The more we empower each other, the better.”
Perez, who also sits on the city’s Small Business Advisory Commission, said she sees her role as a connector, “not just getting people into the workforce, but also … bring[ing] entities together so they can hire the people they need. That’s the dream for me.”
As an example, Perez said her nonprofit’s inclusion in a U.S. Department of Labor initiative to draw more women into the skilled trades connected her to the Texas Department of Transportation, which needs workers for its many ongoing construction projects.
She then connected TxDOT to Ready to Work, San Antonio’s ambitious, taxpayer-funded workforce development program. That means program counselors are now aware of what jobs the agency needs to fill, said Mike Ramsey, executive director of the city’s Workforce Development Office, which oversees Ready to Work.
“That means our partners can better inform participants of which pathways are more likely to lead to a good middle-class job right here in San Antonio,” he said. “Allie is a great ambassador for our program.”
Many people still aren’t aware that skilled trades offer good paying, stable employment, he said — and demand is high, especially as baby boomers begin to retire.
Getting national support
Women interested in entering the trades need support, said Christina “Tina” Barillas-McEntee of Chicago Women in the Trades National Center, as they’re still subject to gender discrimination and unconscious bias, which can limit their opportunities — or drive them out completely.
The Chicago group is leading the Tradeswomen Building Infrastructure initiative, funded by the Labor Department to help increase the number of women in construction. They’re supporting a handful of smaller organizations across the country, including Texas Women in Trades, to implement programs that have worked in Chicago to expand opportunities for women.
“There is a need for women’s support and guidance when they get into these fields, and the best place to look for that support is women-led trade organizations,” Barillas-McEntee said.
That support is part of what has allowed Perez to drop to part time at George Plumbing, and focus more on Texas Women in Trades. She said the move is bittersweet, as the executive team at George is part of a younger generation of leaders looking at innovative ways of doing business.
Clay Saliba, CEO of George Plumbing and grandson of the namesake founder, said he supports Perez’s move, which has allowed others in the company to take on more leadership opportunities.
Saliba said the plumbing industry definitely needs more workers, and while he’s seen a recent uptick in young people entering the trade, thanks in part to expanded high school internship programs, he hasn’t seen an influx of women yet.
He thinks Perez can make a difference. “People like Allie, who are passionate, and good at communicating, can get people excited,” he said. “And young women, or young people in general, if they can see someone who is excited about a trade and is successful, it can give them a perspective on a career path they might be able to take.”
