Kenell Broomstein
My nearly 20-year career in the construction industry hasn’t been an easy road. As an electrical worker, there were many times when I was the only woman or person of color in my crew.
Starting my own electrical contracting business meant overcoming a whole new set of challenges like accessing capital, overcoming systemic discrimination and proving myself in a male-dominated industry.
However, my path to business ownership at KB-Mac Inc. was helped by a unique partnership created by International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 103 and the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) to bring greater diversity, equity, and inclusion to Boston’s construction industry.
If other business leaders and unions follow their lead, our state will be well on its way to developing a more diverse workforce that will build the Commonwealth of tomorrow.
After attending Lynn Vocational Technical Institute, I joined IBEW as a union apprentice. I started to earn competitive wages and was able to start saving money and building a future for my family. I had quality healthcare and the peace of mind that came with it. And I could start focusing on my own business goals.
At the age of 32, I became the first Black woman Business Agent with IBEW Local 103, a role in which I represented the union’s membership in a range of capacities,including generating work opportunities and engaging with community, industry, and political stakeholders.
In 2021, I started my own business – KB-Mac Inc.
At each step of the way, being a part of the union helped teach me about the industry, and provided me with the support and resources I needed to forge a path for my career.
The union contractor partnership between IBEW and NECA has been essential to my career development and is an essential pathway toward improving diversity in the construction trades.
Traditionally, construction has been a male-dominated world littered with barriers that have made it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for many women and people of color to succeed.
But my union and our industry partners are changing the narrative every day – person by person, project by project. Change doesn’t happen unless you make it happen.
Empower DEI, an advanced and accelerated support program for experienced, licensed minority and women electricians seeking to open their own businesses, is helping forge a new pathway forward for women and people of color seeking to advance in the building trades, which historically have been white male-dominated.
But this innovative partnership and mentorship program, which brings a new generation of tradespeople together with experienced members and contractors, has expanded the level of diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout the Greater Boston construction industry, is opening up rewarding and fruitful careers for workers and contractors.
IBEW Local 103 recently welcomed its most diverse class of apprentices in program history, with women and people of color comprising 50 percent of the class.
We did this by creating strong outreach programs and sending organizers into communities. Thanks to their efforts, a growing number of women and people of color are choosing the electrical trade, and finding flourishing careers paying middle-class wages with strong benefits. Many are also becoming self-employed entrepreneurs with their own electrical businesses, like myself.
Bringing diversity to the field is critical if we are to meet growing work demands at a time when the construction industry faces serious labor shortages. According to the Associated Builders and Contractors, the industry will need to hire an additional 650,000 workers this year and over a million more in the next two years to address housing demand increases.
Achieving these critical hiring goals is only possible by attracting a diverse pool of workers and upholding a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
We need more partnerships like the one between NECA and IBEW to get more women and people of color on the path to having good jobs with good benefits and becoming business owners.
Young women and people of color entering the industry need to be supported and know that they are playing on a level playing field so they too achieve their dreams.
Kenell Broomstein is president of KB-Mac Inc. in Dorchester.