ALLIED CLEVELAND TRADESWOMEN
is an all volunteer non-profit organization dedicated to supporting, educating, and mentoring women in the building trades while encouraging a safe and fair work environment.
In 2001, a group of female union construction workers began a social support group that met monthly. However, they felt they could accomplish more as a state registered non-profit organization, so on December 8, 2003, they were incorporated and became Allied Cleveland Tradeswomen with a definitive acronym: ACT. Although ACT originated in Cleveland, it represents tradeswomen in the entire state of Ohio. Members include union building tradeswomen and men of the bricklayers, carpenters, cement masons, electricians, elevator constructors, floorlayers, laborers, operating engineers, painters, and plumbers. Members also include contractors, apprenticeships, bankers, attorneys, and other supporters.
Because these hard-working tradeswomen (many of them wives, mothers, or heads of household) feel they owe an increased standard of living and pride in their skills to their union apprenticeships, they are eager to “give back.” With a passionate sense of who they are and how they got there, the tradeswomen developed scholarship awards for their newer sisters. In October 2004, the first two awards were presented. ACT continues to award annual scholarships to this day.
The dedicated members and board of ACT have devoted countless volunteer hours to nurturing this group into a viable organization. Their leaders are females who support the union building trades. Their progress is huge news, making ACT the first tradeswomen’s organization of its kind in Cleveland, and even Ohio.
