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 An apprentice
is a worker who learns a skilled trade through planned, supervised,
on-the-job training and related classroom instruction. An apprentice is a
regular part of the work force and earns wages while acquiring important
skills. The length of our apprenticeship is approximately 3.5 years and
4500 on-the-job training hours. At the completion of our program, an
apprentice becomes a journeyman, fully qualified to perform the work of the
roofing trade and earns the industry top pay for their skill.
Our apprentice program has been sponsored jointly by
labor and management on the local union level. We serve to provide the
highly skilled workforce necessary to apply the quality roofing and
waterproofing systems that keep America's buildings dry. Our program is
approved by the Department of Labor, Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training.
We are also approved by The Veterans Administration for VA school benefits
to eligible Veterans.
We train our Apprentices for over 50 Union Signatory
Contractors, many of which belong to St. Louis Union Roofing, The Midwest
Roofing Contractors Association and the National Roofing contractors
Association. Roofers Local #2, which is this country's oldest roofing union
has over 700 members to professionally install various roofing and
waterproofing systems. Our jurisdiction covers St. Louis, Western and
Southwestern Illinois and Eastern Missouri.
How Much Will I Earn as a Journeyman?
Union journeymen Roofers and Waterproofers earn $28.65
per hour.
A Journeyman is a Competent Craftsman
 Union roofing
apprenticeship programs pride themselves in their product: an individual
with job skill, knowledge of the trade and a positive attitude toward the
union, the employer, the public and most certainly the paying customer; an
individual with pride, dignity and self-respect.
With your roofing apprenticeship completion
certificate, you will be ready to begin your career as a union trained
roofing and waterproofing worker. You will be qualified to work for any
union or waterproofing employer in the country at higher wages and for
better benefits than are available in the non-union sector of the industry.
What Type of Work will I do?
 Union
journeyman Roofers and Waterproofers work on a variety of types of
buildings, protecting those facilities aainst water intrusion and ultimate
damage to the structure and its contents.
Roofing in the commercial and industrial sector is
generally of the built-up type or the single-ply category.
In built-up roofing, layers or piles of felt are set in
hot bitumen over insulation boards to form a waterproof membrane. An
aggregate may be imbedded in a final bitumen coat to protect the membrane
from ultraviolet radiation of the sun and other environmental hazards.
Single-ply roofing encompasses all of the newer
plastic, polyvinylchloride (PVC), rubber (EPDM) and other elasto-plastic
type membranes that have their seams welded by solvent or hot air or glued
with contact adhesive to form a monolithic waterproofing membrane. These
systems may have a stone or rock or paver block ballast installed over them
or they may be partially or totally adhered to the substrate. These systems
are also installed over roof insulation boards.
A separate category of roofing is the modified bitumen
system that may be applied with hot bitumen or torched-on with high
intensity propane burners.
 Another area of roofing
is the residential type. Although these applications can also be done in
the commercial and industrial sector as well. They include composition
shingles, slate, tile and metal roofs.
Waterproofing is a specialty aspect of the roofing
trade but is no less important than a roof in protecting a building against
moisture intrusion.
Waterproofing can be below grade, which is usually
foundation work. It can also be done on plaza decks, parking garage floors
and other sections of a building where water or moisture protection is
crucial.
Materials used in waterproofing are generally of the
same type used in roofing, although there are many specialty application
materials that may be specified fo this type of work.
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