Local 67 apprentice named U.S. DOL Apprentice Trailblazer

August 27, 2024

Home>News>Members Journal>Summer 2024>Local 67 apprentice named U.S. DOL Apprentice Trailblazer

As part of the United States Department of Labor’s (DOL) Youth Apprenticeship Week in May, SMART Local 67’s Amber Oliver was named an Apprentice Trailblazer — one of just two DOL Apprentice Trailblazers in Texas, and the only sheet metal Apprentice Trailblazer in the country.

Pictured from left to right, back row: Bill Kenyon, SMART SWGCRC president; Mark Garcia, SWGCRC organizer; James May, Jr., SWGCRC Local 67 regional manager; Eddie Gonzalez, SWGCRC financial secretary-treasurer; Ralph Gomez, SWGCRC Local 67 organizer. Front row: Amber’s mother, Jessica Mayorga; DOL Trailblazer Amber Oliver; Amber’s father, Manual Oliver.

Oliver was recognized during a May 2 event at the Local 67 training center in Austin, where SMART Southwest Gulf Coast Regional Council (SWGCRC) and Local 67 leaders, the Texas AFL-CIO and others honored Oliver and her family.

The DOL’s Apprenticeship Trailblazer program has a dual goal: honoring pioneering apprentices, and enlisting those apprentices to expand awareness of, support for and enrollment in registered apprenticeship programs.

As a trailblazer, Oliver — per the DOL’s criteria — was lauded for demonstrating “exemplary leadership, mentoring, teamwork, promotional activities, and/or [having] a transformative story as an apprentice.”

Moving forward, she will partner with DOL and apprenticeship ambassadors to promote registered apprenticeships, bring more people into apprenticeships — particularly women, people of color and workers from other underrepresented communities — devise strategies to expand and modernize apprenticeship programs, and much more. Not only will this help Oliver develop a wide array of relationships with fellow workers and leaders in South Texas; it also has the potential to aid the local’s efforts to boost its union workforce.

Congratulations, sister, on this remarkable achievement!