Growing up in Windsor, Ont. Tracy Robinson would help her dad with odd jobs around the house.
“Whether it was roofing, electric work, everything, I always liked hands on,” she says.
Her father also told her how he liked welding in his younger days and Tracy, gathering experience with odd jobs and with no career path in mind, thought that might be an interesting trade.
Graduating from St. Clair College she was hired in Windsor at the former South Korean manufacturer CS Wind, welding parts for wind turbines. That company went out of business after the former provincial Liberal government ended its green energy program in 2017 and Robinson was laid off.
Looking around for work, a colleague suggested she might want to branch out as an ironworker. It was an easy transition since the Ironworkers’ Union represented CS Windsor employees. She began training through Local 700 and got her certificate of apprenticeship. She is one of nine women in the 1,000 member Windsor local.
Robinson, who is now employed on the $5.7-billion Gordie Howe International Bridge (GHIB) project spanning the Detroit River between Windsor and Detroit, is in her last days as a three-year apprentice. She’ll be returning for an eight-week course and writing for her Red Seal and journeyperson ticket.
Robinson was among the crew that celebrated completing the bridge’s final segment on the 853-metre span June 14. Bridge construction began in 2018 and the bridge is expected to open for traffic in the fall of 2025.
On any job Robinson still might weld but that takes up only about “five per cent” of work. Other jobs include rebar tying, rigging knots, minor steel fabrication, reading blueprints and the general erecting of steel beams, columns and joists.
On the Gordie Howe she’s worked since 2022 on several crews including placing girders and completing bolt-ups.
“Now I’m on a crew which deals with the crane elevator inside the tower,” she says. “We’re going to be taking down the crane eventually.”
Being on any project and creating something “from scratch” is exciting, she says. An earlier project was the Town of Amherstburg’s new North Star High School.
“That was a real cool experience because I learned a lot,” she says. “It started out with just a couple of pieces of steel and the next thing you know there were hallways and classrooms and bathrooms.”
She has since been employed in maintenance in local factories and construction in southwestern Ontario’s greenhouse industry.
After finishing an earlier project Robinson was placed on a waiting list at the union hall and after only a couple of days got the call to work on the bridge. She’s one of three females and is working on structural jobs, the others on rebar.
Are there certain challenges as a woman?
“There’s a lot of heavy things,” she says. “I don’t have and never will have the strength that those guys have.”
Consequently, “I have to work smarter and work harder. I have to figure out ways to make my jobs easier without struggling and hurting myself.”
There’s also the male-female dynamic.
“It’s a bunch of guys I’m working with,” she says. “I’m not there to change the way that they’re acting, I’m just joining their world. So, I like to be treated like everyone else.”
Robinson admits this can be “overwhelming” and she must be “more prepared mentally.”
She must learn quickly and be more astute.
“I know what’s going to be the next move,” she says. “I don’t want to be five steps behind.”
This includes ongoing awareness of items like tools, materials, weights.
It’s very much a man’s world.
“Working with a bunch of guys, they don’t like being called emotional. But they’re great. If I treat them with respect, they treat me with respect.”
She has experienced condescension.
She’s been called a couple of names “and that’s what I’m not OK with.”
In one case the abuser was disciplined. These comments can hurt, and her strategy is to distance herself as best she can until the other worker comes around.
When the final bridge deck segment was installed on the special overnight shift in June Robinson was “very proud and happy” at 4 a.m. that morning. “And at the same time very scared and sad because I love to be working here and it’s soon going to end.”
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