Heartland Women in Trades (HWIT) isn’t messing around and their recent Equity Summit makes that clear. The organization, led and composed of local union women in the trades, hosted their first Equity Sumit on November 21st and landed Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su as the star guest. Kansas City, MO’s Mayor Quinton Lucas and Mayor Pro Tem Ryana Parks-Shaw also came to support the women as special speakers.
“This event brought much needed attention to the high rate of harassment of women in the construction industry. HWIT has the attention of contractors and union leaders and a plan of action to combat harassmen, complete with available training to help assist with implementation and accountability,” said Emily Snyder of IBEW Local 124 and President of Heartland Women in Trades. If you are interested in available training from HWIT, you can reach out to Emily at (816) 715-2250.
For Kelly McClellan, the Equity Summit was a sign of how far HWIT has come and how serious its mission is being understood, with the stars of the organization seemingly aligning for the organization. McClellan and Snyder met Su at a recent Tradeswomen Build Nations event, months later she was in Kansas City as part of the marquee event of the year for the organization.
Cristina Barillas-McEntee, the Director of Tradeswomen Building Infrastructure Initiave and member of the Chicago Women in Trades National Center, served as the Master of Ceremonies for the event and Kansas City’s Whitney Chandler, HWIT Organizer and member of OPCMIA Local 518, and Tina Shonk Little, President of the United Union Childcare Initiative and member of IUOE Local 101, acted as hosts for the summit. Kelly McClellan, HWIT Secretary and member of IUOE Local 101 served as a Steering Committee Representative, alongside IUOE Local 101 Business Manager Aaron Brown; Kendra Carmons from the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs; Stephanie Connor, Community & Citizenship Director, Turner Construction; UA; Kevin Hendricks, Business Manager, Pipefitters Local 533; Matt Harris, Business Manager, Plumbers Local 8 UA; Jenna Johnson, Program Analyst, Women’s Bureau, US Dept. of Labor; Mark Jones, President, IUOE Local 101; Rocky Kloth, Regional Director, Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council; Damian Levings, UBC Local 1127; LaDonna McCullough, Chief Equity Officer, City of Kansas City, MO; Ralph Oropeza, Business Manager Greater KC Building & Construction Trades Council; Kate Sweeten, Strategic Communications Director, Clarkson Construction; and Sonya Yancey, Human Resources Director, Kissick Construction.
The event saw McClellen and Aaron Brown present “Creating a Diverse and Inclusive Workforce”, the organization’s Equity Plan for women in trades in the Kansas City-area. The Equity Plan was developed following two equity roundtables held in March and August of 2024, where stakeholders from the Kansas City skilled trades industry identified key barriers facing women, including challenges related to recruitment, retention, and harassment prevention. (Details from the DOL’s new harassment guide on Page 14)
The event featured two panels, “The Path to Safer Worksites: Tools and Strategies” and “Strengthening the Workforce: Outreach and Recruitment Strategies”, as well as a number of breakout sessions
The first panel was made up of Acting Secretary Julie Su; Stephanie Conner, Director of Community & Citizenship at Turner Construciton; Karen Dove, Executive Director at ANEW; Ali Fisher, Outreach Program Coordinator, EEOC; Alice Kitchen, Gender Equity Task Force Director, KCMO Human Rights Commission; and Emily Snyder of HWIT. The second panel featured Lark Jackson, Director of Chicago Women in Trades National Center; Dr. Andrea Hendricks, Chief DE&I Officer, Authentico; Pipefitters Local 533 Business Manager Kevin Hendrickson; Ali Fisher, Outreach Program Coordinator; Pam Nolte, Treasurer of HWIT and member of Plumbers Local 8; and David Smith, District Director at OFCCP.
If you want to access resources from the HWIT Equity Summit, you can go to tinyurl.com/HWIT-Summit-Resources.
Organizing an event of this scale is challenging. What HWIT pulled off is not just organizing the successful event, but organizing an event that had real built in steps for attendees to engage in that move the region forward on the ladder towards the organization’s goals. The work that HWIT is doing is going to leave our unions and area construction industry in a healthier position.
“What Acting Secretary Su has been doing is making a difference in peoples lives and I think that this event made that apparent. Not only did this event help us, it helped her see the impact of her work,” said McClellen. “I can’t express how much having her there made our lives easier… Su was so prepared and so on top of it.”
Who is Julie Su?
Julie Su is, perhaps, the most prominent labor advocate to visit Kansas city in recent memory and a nationally recognized expert on workers’ rights and civil rights who has dedicated her distinguished legal career to advancing justice on behalf of poor and disenfranchised communities and is a past recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant. Su is trilingual, speaking Spanish, Mandarin and English.
Su became Acting Secretary of Labor on March 11, 2023. She was previously confirmed by the Senate to serve as the deputy secretary of labor on July 13, 2021. As deputy secretary, she served as the de-facto chief operating officer for the department, overseeing its workforce, managing its budget and executing the priorities of the secretary of labor.
Su previously served as the secretary for the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency, where she enforced the state’s labor laws to ensure a fair and just workplace for both employees and employers. A report on her tenure released in May 2013 found that her leadership resulted in a renaissance in enforcement activity and record-setting results. She launched the first “Wage Theft Is a Crime” multimedia, multilingual statewide campaign to reach out to low-wage workers and their employers to help them understand their rights and feel safe speaking up about labor law abuses.
Su is known for pioneering a multi-strategy approach that combines successful impact litigation with multiracial organizing, community education, policy reform,
Tristin Amezcua-Hogan is the Editor of The Labor Beacon and a member of LIUNA Local 264. Tristin also serves as the Director of Communications for the Greater Kansas City AFL-CIO and the Chair of the Kansas City Regional Transit Alliance.
Tristin grew up as the son of a UA Local 669 member in Tecumseh, KS and the great-nephew of George C. Amis, longtime leader of the United Rubberworkers (now USW Local 307) in Kansas. Growing up in rural Kansas as the child of teen parents, Tristin quickly came to appreciate the life-changing benefit of a union job.
Tristin and his partner, Rebeca Amezcua-Hogan, are residents of the Westside, Kansas City, MO's historic Mexican neighborhood. They are proud members of Kansas City's New Reform Temple.
