Ironworkers Local 8 honors top apprentices in Harvey competition
Eighteen apprentices from across the Midwest tested welding and rigging in Harvey, and the top three earned a shot at Washington, D.C., this fall.
Eighteen ironworker apprentices turned Ironworkers Local 8’s Harvey training center into a proving ground June 11 and 12, showing how a union apprenticeship can move local residents from training into a skilled, well-paid trade. The regional competition, held there for the first time, sent the top three finishers on to the national apprentice competition in Washington, D.C., this fall.
That matters in Iron County and across the Upper Peninsula because Local 8’s apprenticeship is built as a four-year pipeline, with apprentices learning welding, rigging, structural steel erection, blueprint reading and safety while earning wages along the way. The union says the program is designed to lead to journeyman status, giving young people and career changers a direct route into construction and industrial work instead of a four-year college track.
The Harvey contest drew apprentices from the Dakotas, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Upper Michigan and Wisconsin, with each local sending four of its best workers into the regional field, Local 8 business agent Tim Roman said. Over two days, competitors worked through written tests and welding challenges, then finished Friday morning with cash games that included rivet toss, spud throw, chainfall races and rebar work. The event underscored how the union uses competition as another layer of training, not just a medal ceremony.
For Milwaukee second-year apprentice Tyler Banach, the chance to stand out in Harvey carried real career weight. “This is a big feather in the cap,” he said. Banach added that other local leaders will remember apprentices who perform well, and that meeting workers from other regions makes the trade feel bigger than any one jobsite. His comments reflected what the competition was really measuring: poise, technique and the ability to work under pressure.
That same pipeline has long reached into the U.P. In 2018, Iron Workers Local 8 apprentice Kyle Schoen of Felch Township was one of three finalists for the Upper Peninsula Apprentice of the Year award in Marquette, a reminder that Iron County and neighboring U.P. communities have been feeding the skilled-trades workforce for years. With the 2026 national competition set for Sept. 30 to Oct. 3 in Washington, D.C., Local 8’s Harvey training center has become a new regional showcase for the next generation of ironworkers.
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