For the past five years, Brian has been teaching apprentices as an Ironworkers instructor while working through the five-summer certification that comes with the job. Twenty years on the iron. Nineteen years in Local 17. And now, a certificate that makes official what his apprentices have known all along.
"The Ironworkers gave me opportunity when there was none," Brian says. "They allowed me to stabilize my home and stabilize my family. Now I want to give back."
Giving back looks like this: standing in front of a room of apprentices and handing them the trade, the way somebody once handed it to him. The skills. The standards. The pride in work done right. A wage that carries a family, and benefits that hold up. That's what Brian teaches — because that's what he was given.
And it's why he's running. The next generation doesn't just need instructors on the training floor. They need somebody in Washington who's lived what a union paycheck, a pension, and good benefits do for a household — and who'll fight to make sure more families get them.
Brian has spent the last five years teaching the next generation. He's ready to spend the next ones fighting for them.
