Herman Bradford knows how to build anything. The 56-year-old Baton Rouge man began learning carpentry from his father at the tender age of 9.
“My dad started you off early. He would say that if you’re in the way that you might as well be doing something,” he said.
By 15, Bradford was serious about the trade. His first solo project was turning a discarded screen door into a wheelbarrow.
Bradford’s building doesn’t end with working with wood or his hands. The Baton Rouge man is determined to build his union, SEIU Local 21 LA.
Bradford, who has worked as a carpenter for the City Parish for five years, doesn’t miss an opportunity to talk to his co-workers about the importance of union membership.
Bradford admitted that in the beginning he didn’t fully understand the benefits of being a union member. Self-employed for years in the family carpentry business – a business that he still works on the side with his 82-year-old father and his brother — Bradford says he didn’t think he needed a union.
But then he got into trouble on the job.
After his issues at work were resolved, thanks to union representation, Bradford started attending union meetings to learn more and quickly began to understand the overall value of union membership.
“I soon realized that the union wasn’t about saving your job,” Bradford said. “It’s about community and helping families. The union staff organizes and sets everything up but it’s up to us to carry it out. We are the union.”
