The Spotlight - Veterans in the Brotherhood

Welcome to The Spotlight, a special segment inside the Grit NW Podcast where we acknowledge those groups within the Northwest Carpenters Union that have gone above and beyond to aid and lend support to better the lives of our members.

On the show today we’ll meet Dale Dvorak, from the Veterans in the Brotherhood.  
Dale is a veteran of the U.S Marine Corps and a 21-year member of the Local 1503, 
in Portland, Oregon. 

We'll discuss the Veterans in the Brotherhood group and why they are committed to making positive change for our members with prior military service and those that support them. Dale will share with us his involvement with the group, from its inception just two years ago, to its efforts to remain connected in the socially distanced virtual world we live in today. 

He will also explain some of the advantages that those who served their country have, when entering the trades as well as some of the challenges they might encounter, while transitioning back to life as a civilian. And why it is so important for many veterans to maintain a sense of camaraderie and esprit de corps both on and off the jobsite.

If you know a group that would be a good candidate for The Spotlight, send an email to GritNW@gmail.com. Be sure to include the contact information for the group and how it has contributed to better our organization. 

Show Notes

U.S Veterans Affairs Department
https://www.va.gov/

Helmets to Hardhats Link
https://helmetstohardhats.org/

Helmets to Hard Hats Interview on America's Workforce Union Podcast
https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/au4ucn/AWF20201110.mp3

NW Carpenters Union Link to V.I.B
https://www.nwcarpenters.org/event/veterans-in-the-brotherhood-portland/2020-11-04/

Veterans in the Brotherhood Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/groups/541959922885626/

Short video on the history of Veterans Day
https://youtu.be/0j2QyTW70QI

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Transcript

Joe Cadwell: 0:14

Welcome to another edition of the spotlight special segment inside the Grit Northwest podcast where we acknowledge those groups within the Northwest carpenters union that have gone above and beyond to aid and lend support to better the lives of our members. On the show today we'll talk with Dale devorah. From the veterans in the Brotherhood. Dale is a veteran of the US Marine Corps and a 21 year member of the local 1503 in Portland, Oregon. We will be discussing the veterans in the Brotherhood group, and why they are committed to making positive change for our members with prior military service and those that support them. Dan will share with us his involvement with the group from its inception just two years ago. to its efforts to remain connected and socially distance virtual world we live in today. We will also explain some of the advantages that those who served their country have when entering the trades, as well as some of the challenges they may encounter while transitioning back to life as a civilian, and why it is so important for many veterans to maintain a sense of camaraderie and esprit de corps both on and off the job site. If you know a group that would be a good candidate for the spotlight, send an email to grid nw@gmail.com. Be sure to include the contact information for the group and how it has contributed to better our organization and the lives of our members. You'll be entered to win an official I've got grid t shirt when you do. And if you haven't already done so please take a moment to join grid nation by clicking on the hyperlink in the show notes. You'll be kept up to date on special offers and promotions only available to grid patient members. And now onto the show.

Unknown: 1:41

Sound good??!!

Joe Cadwell: 1:45

Welcome to the spotlight. Dale.

Dale Dvorak: 1:47

Well, thank you for having me, Joe. I'm excited about this. Absolutely. This series on the veterans in the Brotherhood.

Joe Cadwell: 1:53

Yeah. Thank you so much for taking your time to be here. Dale, I'm excited as well. We have Veterans Day just a couple days ahead of us. And I'd like to know more about your prior military service. Dale, I understand you were a marine.

Dale Dvorak: 2:06

I was I served in the Marine Corps in 1991. I was a US Embassy guard. I was stationed in Paris, France, Sao Paulo, Brazil and mainland Japan. I'm also just a little footnote, my dad was actually a marine and my grandpa was an army. So I'm third generation. Well,

Joe Cadwell: 2:25

thank you for your service. And thank you for your family service. Being that I'm a veteran of the US Navy, I won't hold it against you that you're a marine. But I do appreciate your service. And today, as you know, Dale, I've asked you to come on to the spotlight to talk about the veterans in the Brotherhood group for those with prior military service that are in our organization Northwest carpenters union. Can you tell us a bit more about the group?

Dale Dvorak: 2:53

Absolutely. So a couple of years ago, I think it was right around November or October of 2018 actually believe our our political director Matt Swanson asked us if we had something going on for the veterans. I was like, you know, we really don't. So another rep with Jason Atkins is a Marine Corps veteran, we discussed you know, let's set up a group. So we started putting the word out there and we started putting together so we've been going strong for about two years. We average, probably right around when we first started, it was pretty small, but you know, say four to five, and then it grew to 67, then it grew to 20. And then we're at 30. The COVID thing kind of little took a little toll on us. I'd say we're probably right around last night yesterday, we

Joe Cadwell: 3:38

had our meeting, there was about 14 or 15 of us. And when you said you had your meeting, are you meeting like the rest of the world right now virtually in order to bring this group together?

Dale Dvorak: 3:49

Yes, we are. And so we kept our same date, which is the first Wednesday of every month at 5pm. And now I send out a hustle app and send out emails with all their virtual information. So we can get everybody attracted to that. Unfortunately, you know, with technology, some people aren't so techno savvy as others and some people are scared from it. So we lost some of our membership that way. But we probably have in the group itself over the cup last couple years, we've accumulated probably about 100 hundred and 30 veterans that have actually gone through that are part of it are actively part of the group.

Joe Cadwell: 4:25

Oh, that's awesome. And do you have any idea how many how many members with prior military service are in our Regional Council?

Dale Dvorak: 4:33

Absolutely. So the last numbers we did some research on this. I was talking with Megan from the Regional Council works in our office up and up north and we were trying to figure that out. We were figuring right around nine to 10%. And so I would get an estimate because it's always a guesstimate that we're running well over 2000 people in organization and when I was talking to Todd Gorham, he is our new rep for the industrial sector. He said that, believe it or not, they have a very strong presence of veterans. So I'm going to be working on that group next.

Joe Cadwell: 5:06

And so obviously, you have helped doing this, who are some of the other folks that are, are chairing or organizing the veterans in the Brotherhood group.

Dale Dvorak: 5:15

So for the council, I got, I got our Navy veteran, Aaron gray. And then we have so in the group itself, we because when we put when we first put it on, we were just kind of actively running the thing. And then I figured in order to get buy in from the group, let's let the group run it. So right now we have a chair and a co chair. Our chair is actually Richard O'Neill. He's a Navy veteran. And then our co chair is Trevor Tyree, which is an army veteran.

Joe Cadwell: 5:43

Very good. And do we have some sisters in the veterans in the Brotherhood group as well, we

Dale Dvorak: 5:48

do. We've had as much as three. And I say, usually we have, you know, one to two that come to the meetings. Laura's she's actually an army reservist right now. And she got activated god this recently because of the wildfires. And so hopefully, she'll be coming back. So her name is Laura. She's been coming and joining us, and we've been helping her out, too.

Joe Cadwell: 6:09

So Dale, what is the the mission statement of the veterans in the Brotherhood group?

Dale Dvorak: 6:14

I think our goal really is to help with veterans issues, the challenges that they're having some larger than others. One of the biggest things, you know, like an Oregon, we have the highest suicide rate amongst veterans, and we have the highest unemployment insurance. And we talked about some of those issues, and how do we recruit? How do we get them in our organization, maybe other organizations to help them so we can defeat that problem that we have, we try to keep an active group. So the active and when I say by active, I want the group to be thinking about things that are going to help others help recruit and build our organization and build our group all at the same time. Like yesterday, for example, when I say active, I wanted to try to help get some more activity during these times and I was actually get the Regional Council was able to sponsor a range day. So we're going to get a bunch of veterans together. We're going to rent a range, bring the family some barbecue and have a good time out there. So we try to do a lot of different things in there. Just recently, we helped out a family it was a veteran that was having a serious episode of posttraumatic stress. And he was up rough in his house and he for some reason it just had, it just overcame him. And so we put a group together to go help them re roof his house. So we do a lot of different things out there.

Joe Cadwell: 7:43

What What can you tell the listeners about the helmets to hardhats program, Dale?

Dale Dvorak: 7:48

So the helmets to hardhats Program is a program that the UBC kind of works in conjunction with its I know some people when they hear that they think it's our group, it's actually not ours. It's actually International. It's a national program. But what that program is really designed to do is to help veterans get to organizations like ours, and help them get jobs with apprenticeship programs and get them good pain wages, and, and medical benefits. So we work directly with them. Our veteran outreach coordinator is Nicholas, Nicholas weathers, and your Nick. And he's actually he's an army veteran. And I tell you, it's amazing. I talked to him about recruitment or helping out or this and that, and he sends people my way all the time. And as far as like, in comparison with the other trade sets, such as plumbers, electricians, it's it's like night and day with the carpenters do with them. So it's a great group. It's a great program. And in your opinion, Dale, what

Joe Cadwell: 8:49

do you think are some of the the attributes that someone who has had prior military service whether in the Marines, the Navy, the army, the Coast Guard, the Air Force, National Guard, what makes them successful when they transition out of the military, and into our organization?

Dale Dvorak: 9:09

You know, I honestly, for the military, it's almost like a perfect fit, we have a structure, show up on time discipline. You know, it's things that people don't really think about that, you know, people in the military, and you know, as well as I do, Joe, that they, they spent a lot of money on us through training through boot camp, through the discipline. And that's why it's always unfortunate that people get stuck in and paint jobs that pay nothing. I get, in fact, guys talked to a veteran yesterday. He's making like 17 bucks an hour and it's like, why he didn't but if you don't know you don't know. And these good paying jobs that we have, they don't even know about them. So with all the money that they spent on them, they spent on me and you it's a perfect fit for the discipline. And some of the Train doesn't you wouldn't think it would cross train, some of it cross trains very well, because in the military, you have welders, you have all kinds of different services within the military. So some cross training, they fit right over like the Navy is a good example, for the Seebees. And Seabees f t right over the construction, w actually bring them in as S ane Simon is one of our Navy v teran seabees. And he came in, h even had, I think he started t e later term apprentice, he w s perfect fit.

Joe Cadwell: 10:28

I agree. Oh, yeah, I was gonna say I have to agree having come to our organization, after having gone through Navy second class dive school in 1985. It was a smooth transition for me to take the skills that I had learned as a Navy Diver and apply them to a successful career here in the Pacific Northwest as a commercial diver. So I truly appreciate that opportunity I was given early on in my my life right out of high school to join the military. Conversely, what do you think? What do you think some of the bigger challenges are now for folks that do come out of the military, aside from finding us, you know, what, what the Union offers? What are some of the bigger challenges that may be face, our folks that come into the union,

Dale Dvorak: 11:12

are veterans in the group, I think, I think the military has its own its own structure. And I think they spent a lot of time and you kind of get acclimated to that environment. And when they come into our organization, it's different, right? Even though there's discipline, there's this now, but there's a lot of freedoms. And I think if they don't understand all this entailed in there, I think that they can go down the wrong path, you know, not taking advantage of the training, maybe some of them have post traumatic stress, and there are challenges there, and they don't know where to go to. So we have a lot of programs with an organization to help out like the EAP program is a great program, that it's free to our members. So I think some of the challenges are probably that, unfortunately, some of its alcohol, some of its drugs. And they fight those particular things, post traumatic stress, sometimes that comes on later on in life. You know, it is it's a myriad of things.

Joe Cadwell: 12:09

Dale, I know, the veterans in the Brotherhood group has a just an amazing logo. I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit more about where that came from?

Dale Dvorak: 12:17

And that's Yes, absolutely. You know, maybe about three or four meetings into this, we wanted to create something that was unique within our organization. So we knew we were unique with it, this being a veteran organization. So we wanted to create some kind of a symbol or logo for it. So we had a group of probably 20 people in the room, and we had a young kid, his name is Damien, crate craft. And Damien. He loves doing a lot. I used to watch him all the time over there doodling things as like, you know, let's, let's come up with a design that's going to sell our organization. And so we did. And he came back to the table with about four or five different designs, and we said, okay, this is what we want. And then after we came up with the design, we give it to Johnny in our communications department. And she finalized the the final version of it. And as you said, it's, it's awesome. I mean, I can't think of a better logo for organization for that with a cross rifle and the hammer and the half military half construction. I think it was this perfect and ideal for what we were trying to do. So I'm excited that you know, everybody got the input on it. Some people have more than others, because some people did some more of the more crafty.

Joe Cadwell: 13:27

But Damien did a great job. I'd have to agree that is a great logo and really incorporates the, the how they to craft embrace the military and our carpenters union. So last year, I was part of this. And I really wish COVID hadn't come along and so many other people. But we had a pretty, pretty cool event at p NCI, the Pacific Northwest carpenters Institute last year for our veterans in the people who support those with prior military service. And this year, we're not doing that. So what do you have plans? What do you have planned for this coming Veterans Day, Dale?

Dale Dvorak: 14:03

So you're talking about the Veterans Day dinner that we had, and that was that was awesome. We had well over I think we had an 80 to 90 people there. So this year, kind of like what I was alluding to earlier, we're going to do that range day. So in lieu of that, we're going to put some resources and I think it's going to happen net in December. So we're working on the logistics of it now trying to find the location food, how many people how much ammo we're gonna need, because we're going to gun rage, and bring up all our toys that we have, because you know, we're all military. So we love to have our toys when I say toys, guns, and of course, you know, we'll probably reach out to Joe you were alluding to this earlier. You know, what kind of things do veterans get on Veterans Day we're gonna try to spread that out there too.

Joe Cadwell: 14:51

Good deal and I will have a in the show notes hyperlinks to the different benefits that veterans can enjoy on Veterans Day. From discounts at some of the big box stores to free dinners at some of the larger chains to do free haircuts. So there are a lot of perks for those who have had prior military service on Veterans Day. So Dale has been a really great conversation. If people are interested in learning more about how they can join the veterans group, where would they go.

Dale Dvorak: 15:22

So right now we actually have quite a few different locations to kind of point them in my direction. The Regional Council website has up on the calendar, our locals, our local 1503 has a nice calendar. The training center has flyers kind of thrown out throughout the calendar, I believe they also have it on their, their board markerboard up there, they can call me on my cell phone, which is 971-284-1890 they can always call me I give them the link and I can set them up so that every month I will send them a hustle app or hustle text. So that way they get the link to the zoom meeting.

Joe Cadwell: 15:59

That sounds great again, Dale devorah. Thank you so much for taking your time to be on the show and thank you for your service.

Dale Dvorak: 16:05

Thank you.

Joe Cadwell: 16:07

Our guest day was Dale devore ak with the veterans in the Brotherhood group in Portland, Oregon. If you like today's episode, please share it with a friend family member or co worker. Grit Northwest is available on Apple podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, and other podcast platforms as well as on the web at grid nw buzzsprout comm if you haven't already done so, please post a review on Apple podcasts will help others find the show. Well that wraps up this episode of the spotlight till next time. This is Joe Cadwell reminding you for Work Safe, work smart and stay union strong