NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | July 17, 2015 | PAGE 5
Painters and tapers training center hires Phelps as new coordinator
Jim Phelps is the new appren-
After college he moved to
ticeship coordinator at the Hawaii to teach. His brother
Painters & Drywall Finishers went with him, and together
Regional Training Cen-
they co-owned a suc-
ter. He succeeds Bill
cessful remodeling and
Regan, who retired (see
construction company.
article below).
Phelps recently de-
Phelps, 45, was the
cided to return to the
construction and main-
mainland to accommo-
tenance training admin-
date his growing family.
istrator at Hawaiian
During a job search, he
Electric Co., where he
saw that the Painters
oversaw a program of
and Tapers apprentice-
Jim Phelps
250 apprentices train-
ship program in Oregon
ing to be outside line-
was looking for a new
men. Prior to that he taught coordinator.
school in Hawaii for nearly 10
“I saw what they were doing
years. He left the classroom for here and I was very impressed,”
a job designing and developing he said.
curriculum for the Hawaiian
Phelps says he’s still in a bit
school district. That led to the of a learning curve for the paint-
position at Hawaiian Electric.
ing industry, but it’s been made
“My education path and my much easier because of the
construction path, it all came to- knowledgeable staff that’s al-
gether,” he said.
ready in place—office manager
A native of Anchorage, Joanne Nordquist, secretary
Alaska, Phelps followed in his Connie Benson, and full-time
father’s footsteps as a school instructor Harry Kalin.
teacher. “My father was an edu-
“They are fantastic,” he said.
cator, and he built homes in the “I call us the Core 4.”
summer,” he said. “As a kid, I
Phelps takes over a 7,440
would help him build houses. I square-foot training center that
learned alot from him.”
features a state-of-the-art blast-
Phelps received an academic ing booth to teach sandblasting,
scholarship to the University of a full spray booth, and the latest
South Dakota, where he earned model virtual spray machine,
a bachelor’s degree in elemen- which simulutes and scores how
tary and secondary education.
well you apply paint to a surface.
New painters and tapers apprenticeship coordinator Jim Phelps gets acquainted with the state-of-the-art
training center in Northeast Portland.
Kalin and seven part-time in-
structors (all journeyman mem-
bers of Painters and Drywall
Finishers Local 10), teach all the
nuances of faux finishes, and a
couple instructors even teach the
lost art of paint color mixing
(most of which is now comput-
erized).
On the drywall finishing side
there are structural wall mock-
ups and rolling modules that
feature every interior angle and
curve known.
“I feel very fortunate to be
coming in at this time, when this
is all coming together,” Phelps
said. “We have powerful train-
ing tools here—things that not
many other training centers
have. I tip my hat to the JATC
board for that.”
Phelps says his primary goal
will be to make apprentices and
Longtime Local 10 member Bill Regan retires as apprentice coordinator
Bill Regan has retired as appren-
ticeship coordinator for the
Painters & Tapers Regional
Training Center.
Regan, 62, has been the coor-
dinator since 2002, where he has
trained thousands of men and
women to be skilled painters,
drywall finishers, and reliable
workers.
“A good portion of my job
was to try to give people a sense
of accomplishment,” he said.
Some promising apprentices
never pan out, he said, while
others that you thought would
never make it turn out to be stel-
lar.
A graduate of Clackamas
High School, Regan joined
Painters Local 10 in 1973. He
was attending community col-
lege to get into the electronics
and telecommunications field
when he realized he didn’t like
being inside all the time.
He knew some guys from a
neighborhood tavern he fre-
quented in Northwest Portland
who were bridge painters.
“They worked eight to nine
The 100th anniver-
months a year and made
sary booklet of Painters
lots of money,” he said.
Local 10 credits finan-
“That sounded pretty
cial secretary Regan
good to me.”
and business rep John
Regan worked both
Kirkpatrick for over-
in commercial and in-
seeing “our miraculous
dustrial painting during
recovery.”
a time when there were
As apprenticeship
more than 100 union
coordinator, Regan
shops. He was active in
Bill Regan
oversaw a staff of one
the union, and in 1992
was elected financial secretary. full time instructor, four part-
In that position, Regan was a time instructors, and an office
trustee on both the Painters and manager. He was involved in
Drywall Finishers joint appren- the formation of the Painters
ticeship training committees. In Union Management Partnership
those days, the committees (PUMP) in 2004 and the ac-
leased a building in Northeast companying Safety Training
Portland to house their training Awards Recognitions (STAR)
center.
program, which gives bonuses
Just a few years prior, in the to painters who enroll in contin-
late 1980s, a poor economy and uing education classes.
the rise of double-breasted
Regan was active with the ap-
shops (contractors who bid prenticeship coordinators group,
work both union and nonunion), where coordinators from all
caused membership to tumble. crafts meet regularly to share
It got so bad that the training ideas about training, recruit-
program was forced to shut ment, and to discuss other issues
down. It re-opened a few years and concerns.
later, and thrived in the boom
Regan also played a large role
years of the 1990s.
in the purchase of the current
training center.
“The committees had talked
for years about buying a build-
ing,” Regan said. “But it never
materialized.”
That changed following the
Great Recession of 2008. With
the economy in recovery mode
and the real estate market still
soft, the Painters JATC decided
the time was right to buy a
building.
“We spent a couple of years
looking at commercial prop-
erty,” Regan said. In 2012, a real
estate agent showed them a
building at 135th and NE
Whitaker—just a few blocks
from where they were renting
space. They bought the building.
Regan said training definitely
has changed over the years. To-
day there are virtual painting ma-
chines, and paint is mixed by
computers. “Six-dollar-a-gallon
paint now costs $600 a gallon,”
he said jokingly.
In retirement Regan will
spend more time with his wife
Carole, and work on his boat
and a vintage Austin Healy.
journey workers the best that
they can be. The training center
offers continuing education
classes for journey-level
painters and tapers.
“I want to keep this going,”
he said. “We are never too old to
stop learning new skills.”
Phelps lives in Vancouver,
Wash., with his wife and two
children, ages 5 and 2.
Apprenticeship Open
The Oregon/SW Washington
Painters JATC, and the Ore-
gon/SW Washington Drywall
Finishers JATC, are accepting
applications for new appren-
tices. Currently there is a
shortage of workers in the
trades, so finding a job
shouldn’t be difficult.
The apprenticeship consists
of 6,000 hours of on-the-job
training, and an additional 432
hours of related classroom in-
struction. Related training is
usually conducted in the
evening and on Saturdays, on
the apprentice’s own time.
Typically it takes three years
to complete the program. Ap-
prentices are paid 70 percent
of journeyman wages, plus
benefits, while they learn.
Applications can be made
in person Tuesdays from 9
a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (closed dur-
ing the noon hour). The train-
ing center is located at 13521
NE Whitaker Way, Portland.
That’s two blocks north of
Sandy Blvd., near the Costco
store. For more information,
call 503-287-4856.