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Originally printed in Crane & Hoist Canada June 2018

Union members concerned over new training regulations

In early May, members of Quebec’s crane operators union drove their rigs through the streets of Montreal en route to a protest on the steps of the Premier’s office voicing their opposition to recent changes to training regulations. The new regulations make it easier for journeypersons from other trades to enter the crane field, and allow in-house training to be utilized. The changes have been enacted in anticipation of an upcoming labour shortage.

Gilles Larivière, Local 905

Spokesperson for the Local 905, Gilles Larivière, says that the union are concerned that these changes will cause safety issues.

“It’s going to come down to that – more accidents,” Larivière says. “People doing stuff that they’re not equipped for, that they don’t have the training for yet. It takes a while to get comfortable. Right now in Quebec, if you want to become a crane operator, you have to go to school. And in this law they brought out a piece of it that a company can hire somebody and do in-house training and he can become certified. We haven’t had that in Quebec for a long time now.”

Flanked by a few of their cranes, members of the crane operators union protested on the steps of the premier’s office in early May.

Melanie Malenfant, spokesperson for the Commission de la construction du Québec (Construction Commission of Quebec) argues, however, that the changes are necessary in anticipation of a labour shortage and that the regulations haven’t actually been reduced.

“The trade of crane operator was the only one in the industry for which access was impossible for non-graduates in cases of labour shortage or for journeymen in other trades,” says Malenfant. “The requirements for training crane operators have not been reduced; rather, they have been enhanced. For instance, the 45-hour course ‘Utilisation sécuritaire de grues’ (safe crane operation) has been replaced by 150 hours of training, with practical and theoretical sections.”

A key source of contention for the union is an 80-hour training course available to journeymen in other trades to operate boom trucks, 30 tonnes and less, with fixed controls.

This training is available solely for handling materials related to their trades. However, the union remains concerned regardless of the relatively smaller size of the cranes.

“From our experience, these boom trucks up to 30 tonnes have very long booms,” says Larivière. “They’re very easy to top over. It’s like playing with a fishing rod. The experience needed is a bit more than 80 hours.”

Malenfant responds that the training is combined with a qualification exam with a pass threshold of 80 per cent, and that in order to maintain their qualification, journeymen will have to prove that they have worked 50 hours per year in the activity.

Melanie Malenfant, CCQ

“We had to proceed with these changes because it was difficult for employers to find crane operators available to operate this type of machinery, which is used sporadically and occasionally on construction sites,” says Malenfant. “In the absence a crane operator, other, untrained workers were called upon to perform this task without holding any particular qualification. It is this dangerous situation that we have corrected.”

One solution that the union proposed was the option of changing some of the regulations regarding apprentices who are training in the field.

“In Quebec, the apprentice is not allowed to operate by himself – he always has to be under supervision,” says Larivière. “But we were willing to say, ‘well, open up the law enough to let our apprentices operate the boom trucks by themselves.’ They’ve already been to school for at least 800 hours. They have a lot more training.”

Malenfant responded to a question of whether a change to the apprenticeship rules was considered by stating that, “The rules for apprentices are clear: they must be supervised by a journeyman during their apprenticeship.”

Malenfant also stated that the regulatory changes that have come into effect were adopted following approval by official bodies in the industry, which include employer and union associations. The rule change was also approved by Quebec’s health and safety board, Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST).

Larivière is unmoved by the assertion, stating that the CNESST is more concerned that someone is trained, rather than how they are trained. He says the union is looking at other avenues to pursue the issue but they remain uncomfortable with the regulation change.

“Locals are always trying to make sure that safety comes first for all our members and the public also,” says Larivière. “This will affect the public more than my members, actually. Our certified operators are not going to be in the seats, but it’s the public that will end up with the risk of accidents. We’ve already had quite a few of them lately, and with this change going in there are going to be more.”

Originally printed in Service Truck Magazine May 2018

Dr. James Clapper demonstrates a stretching exercise for preventing injuries while trucking.

With a mind to safety, service truck operators often receive extensive training in order to utilize their equipment in a secure fashion that doesn’t put anyone or anything on a job site at risk needlessly.

However, potential dangers lurk in mundane aspects of service truck operations. Without proper care and technique, debilitating injury can be caused by the most innocuous of actions. Los Angeles area chiropractor Dr. James Clapper, a specialist in occupational injury prevention and ergonomics, says it is extremely important that those in the utility industries take proper care to protect themselves.

“In my experience, most muscle, joint and disc injuries are caused by the accumulation of many

little things that eventually add up until something wears down and ‘breaks,’” Clapper told Service Truck Magazine. “Little by little, little things add up into big things. This is common knowledge when bending a coat hanger back and forth or when a slow, persistent leak doesn’t become apparent until significant damage is already done.”

In the two photos above, Dr. Clapper demonstrates a pair of hand and finger stretches that can help avoid injuries that come from long periods spent using a steering wheel and other equipment

Clapper, who presented on this topic at the 2017 International Construction and Utility Equipment Exposition in Louisville, said most people sabotage their own bodies in a variety of “little” ways throughout the day that compound over years. Many don’t even realize how much pressure they are potentially putting on their bodies. Backs, shoulders and other body parts eventually give out after years of accumulated stress yet they don’t have any idea what happened. Even something as simple as sitting in your truck for long periods can have devastating impacts, Clapper says.

Hazards of sitting

“Sitting for long duration causes muscle tightness in the hamstrings and hip flexors, particularly,” said Clapper, director of ergonomics and biomechanics Training for Future Industrial Technologies. “These muscles directly affect the knee joints, hips and low back — all common areas for drivers to experience pain and discomfort. Chest muscles get tight from the arms-forward position, pulling the shoulder joints into an at-risk position and putting tension in the upper back and neck. Gripping the steering wheel causes the flexion muscles of the hands and forearms to be tight as well.”

The solution, Clapper says, is strategic, therapeutic stretches which help to maintain the neutral length of the muscles. The stretches should be done daily, or even several times a day. Tight muscles and tendons are prone to straining and inflammation while joints that are under tension suffer from decreased motion and are prone to arthritis and other degenerative changes over time.

“As we get older, our muscles and joints don’t work like they used to, so stretching is important and necessary,” Clapper said. “Some people roll right out of bed and expect their body to do all kinds of things and it’s not ready! They put themselves at risk. Preparation is needed to reduce the chances of injury in the immediate and in the long run. The stretches we teach, for example, in our training are easy to do, safe and effective. Some common stretches that we all learned back in gym class are more harmful than they are good. The head roll is a good example — rolling your head backwards is not good for the joints in your neck.”

Challenge of changing habits

One of the biggest challenges is changing habits — many workers have been performing their duties in unhealthy fashions for years and will find it hard to change, citing the cliché about old dogs and new tricks. At a fundamental level, however, Clapper says, these people don’t want to get hurt and they have families who don’t want them to get hurt.

“I say it’s not worth being stubborn about holding on to old habits that are just going to get you hurt,” Clapper said. “It’s pretty easy to modify the things you do to be safer once you know how. In our training, we demonstrate this and they feel the difference first hand. Self-preservation is a motivating factor.”

If self-preservation isn’t enough, perhaps employers should encourage workers to avoid actively or knowingly contributing to the development of a preventable injury, which could lead to them becoming a burden on their co-workers or their families. While these injuries cause lost production man-hours on a job site, it’s about more than that. It’s about the quality of life enjoyed.

“It is not OK to work hard your whole life and then end up broken for retirement,” Clapper said. “By then you’ve earned the right to enjoy it and by managing it well, your body can last long enough to allow you to do just that.”

Photos courtesy Dr. James Clapper.

Originally printed in Service Truck Magazine April, 2018

Ken Hill uses a simple metaphor to emphasize the importance of oil analysis: the oil in your equipment is its blood; and oil analysis is like a check-up at the doctor.

Lubricating oils prevent friction damage to equipment parts, acts as coolants, and help drain contamination from equipment when lubricants are changed, says Hill, vice-president of sales and marketing for WearCheck Lubrication Services LLC.

This is doubly or triply important for service truck operators, who have to worry not only about the engine in their own truck, but about the equipment they’re maintaining, as well as supplementary equipment on the service truck.

“Without lubricating oil there, you’re going to end up having a lot of wear generating and a lot of contamination inside the engine itself,” Hill says.

Hill says that labs like WearCheck’s will compare the amount of wear metals in a sample, and the condition of the oil itself to threshold limits established by the original equipment manufacturer. If one sample shows 85 parts per million of iron, and the next sample jumps to 200, for example, it reveals that there is likely some form of major internal wear on the engine.

Know your oil type

“We need to know the oil type,” says Hill, who is based in Manchester, Pa. “We need to know the oil manufacturer, because different manufacturers use different amounts of the additive package that’s in there. So they want all the information the lab can get from the end user, (that) being the make, model of the engine, the oil type and how much oil is in there. How old is the engine? Does it have 500,000 miles or does it have 100,000 miles on it? We look at all that information combined to actually come up with a diagnosis that will be beneficial to the end user themselves.”

Hill says that historically many companies only pursued oil analysis when required by the equipment’s OEM for an extended warranty. However, in the past 15 years, he has slowly noticed more and more attention being given to the topic.

Being aware of how to properly maintain lubricating oils is another matter entirely, though.

“If you’re going to spend good money on the lubricants out there, and you’re going to pay a premium price for it, you need to learn how to keep them clean and dry,” Hill says. “Is it coming out of a drum that’s wide-open on the shop floor? Or is it in a storage system to where it’s contained and it’s locked up?”

Hill gave a presentation on oil analysis at the triennial ConExpo-Con/Agg heavy equipment trade show in Las Vegas in March 2017. According to his speaker’s bio on the ConExpo website, Hill has over 30 years experience in analysis of used lubricants and is certified as an equipment support professional through the Association of Equipment Management Professionals.

He told Service Truck Magazine that you could use the most expensive oil in the world and it won’t make a difference if it’s not properly maintained. Proper maintenance is not just for larger companies with bigger bankrolls. Hill says he often hears complaints from smaller firms about the cost of oil analysis, but he says that neglecting it is a crucial mistake.

Preventing catastrophes

“If I’ve got a truck that I just paid $85,000 for, I definitely want to make sure it’s maintained properly and I want to know when stuff’s going on internally,” Hill says. “If you do have a problem, and it’s under warranty, then you can take it right to the OEM or your dealer and, hopefully, they’ll fix it under a warranty claim for you.”

Hill warns that OEM-mandated oil analysis and oil changing may not be enough. Ordinarily, the OEM will require an oil change every 250 to 500 hours. However, much can happen in those first 250 hours and again between 250 and 500 hours. Monitoring and sampling your oil could help prevent catastrophic failures.

“People are actually starting to pay attention to this, because they’re realizing that by analyzing your equipment on a specific timeline, instead of saying ‘Well, I’ll analyze it if I think I have a problem,’ there’s an internal benefit there,” Hill says. “If you just save a client, say, one engine — these days a Class A engine’s going to run you about $60,000 — that’s going to pay for the analysis program for a couple of years by doing that.”

Originally printed in Aquaculture North America April, 2018

Real Oyster Cult pioneers B2C overnight delivery of fresh oysters from 70 US farms

Contrary to what the name may lead you to believe, there are no secret rituals or sacrifices involved in joining Real Oyster Cult.

“Our hashtag and tagline – #jointhecult – is all about joining, having fun, and is wink, wink, get in on the party,” says Sims McCormick, the creative force behind Real Oyster Cult’s unique marketing. “We’re a cult of oyster lovers, life lovers. Let’s celebrate.”

Real Oyster Cult’s founders Sims McCormick and Rob Knecht provide their members with oysters from farms across the United States and Canada

McCormick’s husband Rob Knecht spent most of his working life on the water, running a maritime school, and working as a sailing coach. When the couple launched the oyster farm in 2006, Knecht also worked with a technology company. At that company, it was interactions with technologists, developers and designers that sparked the idea to build a company that used technology to get oysters directly to consumers, shipped overnight.

“We leverage our mobile app and our website to get in front of consumers online that want to source oysters from all over North America, and we make that happen for them,” says Knecht. “Our front-end technology really gives you access to the farmers, their story, and deeper dives if you’re really into flavour profiles, and details of the oyster and where they’re grown.”

Real Oyster Cult sells product from over 70 farms (including their own), rotating which farms are featured on a weekly basis. Some products will stay longer based on demand, but they make efforts to highlight a new farmer at least once a week through their newsletter and their platform.

Solving the technological and logistic challenges with this model is what Knecht calls their ”secret sauce.”

“We’ve solved some of those issues with technology,” says Knecht. “We not only have our front end technology, but our backend tech helps smooth that process out. Some of them are custom and proprietary, and others are technologies that you can get; whether it’s Slack technology [a cloud-based suite of collaboration tools] or another third party that we implement into our system.”

While Real Oyster Cult has sold oysters to chefs on a limited level, the majority of the clientele is B2C — end consumers who love oyster lovers and adventurous foodies. Knecht says they are riding the wave of Plated, Blue Apron and other ready-to-cook meal kits, which opened a window into people’s buying habits. They have shipped to all 48 continental states and their most popular markets currently include Texas, Ohio, Illinois, Florida, Colorado and Pennsylvania.

However, freshness is important, particularly as it comes to shellfish. As always, Real Oyster Cult answers the challenge with technology.

“We use a little gel temp sensor in our package, which provides a level of security on temperature so that the consumer knows that they’ve stayed under about 50 degrees for the whole trip to their door,” says Knecht.

Cultivating a community

While the business certainly sees booms around holidays, where customers may want oysters for celebrations and events, they also have a monthly cult membership which sends 20, 40 or 60 oysters every month. The cult membership features oysters hand curated by Knecht and McCormick.

“We’re picking some very special oysters based on what’s highly in season and what’s tasting phenomenally,” says Knecht. “They’re going to be at their peak flavours and they’re going to be the best of the best. And we also try to pick what’s not readily available everywhere, oysters you may not find at any restaurant — ones that are only locally sourced, for instance. We like to give our cult members something special.”

The cult theme may be whimsical, but it also refers to a real community and culture which McCormick and Knecht attempt to cultivate. They interact directly with their customers through a variety of platforms. McCormick notes that their Facebook page is currently blowing up with excitement over Glacier Point oysters from Halibut Cove, Alaska.

“They obviously have a really nice community of supporters around them that were able to share the story and comment on it,” says McCormick. “The oysters are truly glacier-fed. Theirs is a great story – husband and wife team, raising oysters, mussels and kids in remote Alaska. We got a chance to tell their story across our platform and on social media last week and the response was tremendous. That’s really what we’re all about, trying to spread the love – give our customers direct access to the farmers and regions that grow oysters and giving the farmers a platform to shine.”

Award-winning

In November, Real Oyster Cult were one of the eight finalists awarded a cash prize at Fish 2.0’s 2017 Innovation Forum. Fish 2.0’s release says the winners were selected for ”simplifying supply chains while increasing income for fishers and farmers, bringing to market creative approaches to aquaculture production and traceability, and getting consumers excited about seafood.”

“We had a great experience there, met a lot of great people,” says Knecht. “Getting to meet folks and hearing about their challenges and different things they were working through at start-up. It was very refreshing. We still keep in touch with the folks that we’ve met through that. Trying to help each other out and network, even on a global scale, is what’s neat about the program, for sure.”

Looking forward, they hope that the networking opportunities that Fish 2.0 offers will help them as they develop their next steps forward – expanding into international markets, and, domestically, moving into a direct chef/pop-up model. But in the meantime, they are happy to grow their cult.

“We’ve had such a great response from people who said, ‘I never would have gotten any kind of live seafood shipped to my door. And I’ve never shucked an oyster before, but I did this, and I watched your video on how to shuck, and taught my daughter and had an amazing experience,’” says McCormick. “That is just so much fun for us. We converted them.”

Originally printed in Crane & Hoist Canada March, 2018

Three former chairs of the CRAC reflect on their careers, growing up in cranes, and their experiences as women in a male-dominated industry.

Cranes and heavy construction have long been stereotyped as “men’s work,” and the demographics of the industry could enforce that perception. The industry is fairly dominated by men. But that perception is changing, as more and more women are establishing themselves as driving forces within their companies and within the industry as a whole.

We spoke to three such prominent women about their experience growing up around family-owned crane businesses, their terms serving as chairperson of the Crane Rental Association of Canada, and their experiences as women in the crane industry.

Sheena Baker – Canadian Crane Rentals

“I’ve been exposed to the crane industry since a very, very young age,” says Sheena Baker. “Growing up, most people had Tonka toys, I had real life-sized heavy equipment and that’s where my love for the equipment started.”

Baker represents the third generation of her family to work in the crane industry. At 10 years old, Baker began by doing cleaning and other types of grunt work for her family’s business – Canadian Crane Rentals in Wingham, Ont. After leaving the industry briefly to pursue an education, she was drawn back in her early 20s.

“We also had a pumping division, so we were running a significant amount of equipment at that time, so we needed extra help,” Baker recalls. “I came back just to temporarily help out for a little bit and rekindled that interest in heavy equipment and running a business; and learning more about what goes on in the field of a construction site, multi-site projects, that type of stuff. I started there and built on that to what I do today.”

Baker worked on the safety side of the business initially and slowly added more and more skills – learning what size equipment would be needed for which projects, dispatching, managing employees, overseeing the shop floor and overseeing the operators. Today, she serves as operations manager.

Her brother technically works underneath her, but there is no sibling rivalry.

“He’s running the equipment but he has no interest in actually managing the business,” she says.

There were no gender roles in their household growing up – if her father needed help fixing the car it fell to whoever was handy. They were both treated the same and exposed to the same things.

Baker is also an owner and instructor for Huron and Bruce Safety Training. Grown out of her experiences focusing on safety within Canadian Crane Rentals, she saw a need for training options that were more affordable for smaller businesses.

“I understand the risks that they’re being exposed to. So, from an instructor standpoint, I don’t just have a book that tells me, I actually have hands-on experience,” says Baker.

Canadian Crane Rentals has been associated with the CRAC since the beginning. Her father is currently serving his third term on the board and was also president. Baker herself served on the board for six years and was president last year.

“I was very grateful that they accepted somebody, relatively very young in the industry,” says Baker. “I was only in my mid-20s when I was nominated. There was no, ‘I’m older, I’ve been around longer. Can we trust you?’ It was very well diversified between anyone on the board – everybody’s opinion mattered.”

One of Baker’s proudest achievements with CRAC was putting an enhanced focus on the safety aspect of the business – getting information about what’s happening in the field, what the trends are, and getting the forum to discuss how to deal with those issues. She was also very happy to provide a voice to smaller companies in the industry, such as Canadian Crane Rentals.

Shawna Boreen – Sarens

“My father owned a crane company and I drew the short straw,” jokes Shawna Boreen.

At a young age, Boreen was extremely interested in business.

“Even as a young kid, I would read the business section of the Edmonton Journal, totally nerdy,” she says.

After finishing her university degree, Boreen worked for her father’s company, King Crane Service Ltd. There, she worked in the office and came to understand the basics of what her family did.

The biggest lessons she learned from her experiences working with her father were about decision-making and leadership – how it’s not about always being right, but about being able to make a decision that helps the team get to where they need to go. Her father entrusted her with responsibility early on and was adamant that she develop the skills she would need.

“One of my first tasks in the crane industry was to get a loan for my dad to buy a crane,” says Boreen. “I had to go to the bank manager and said, ‘Mr. Simpson, I’m here to get a loan’ and he said ‘I don’t ideal with you, I deal with your dad,’ and he sent me away! So I came back to my dad and he’s like, ‘Get back there, you’re the future. You’re going to learn how to get a loan from a bank.’ I had to go back to see Mr. Simpson and I said, ‘I’m more afraid of my father and going back without a loan than anything you can do here.’ And I got to write a check with more zeroes than I’d ever seen in my life.”

She remained with King Crane Service until its closure. Following that she did some freelance work for other crane companies on specific projects, from the opening of a new branch, to helping with health and safety aspects, to managing rough terrain crane fleets.

During a lull between jobs, she was approached by Sarens and became their special projects manager. Currently, she is based out of Nisku, Alta. serving as senior project manager and site manager for the company.

In the early days of the CRAC, her father was asked if he would like to sit on the board – he declined, but suggested Boreen would be a good fit. She became a board member and would go on to become chair in 2006. She did a lot of community and committee work with the association. She will finish her third tenure on the board this May. She says she was particularly proud of the CRAC conference she was in charge of in Kelowna, B.C. in 2006.

“What I bring is a sense of collaboration and communication. I think those are my strengths as a leader,” says Boreen. “We helped to really establish the spousal program with regards to having some value for the spouses who attend, men or women, and we really developed that. We were really diligent in ensuring that the speakers we bring are informative, are relevant to the times and can speak to the issues that are of a nation instead of just specific areas.”

Valerie Brennan – Amherst Crane Rentals, Ltd.

“I was one of the oldest, so the kids all got involved in helping right from the get-go in one way or another,” says Valerie Brennan. “I began to do invoices for my mother when I came home from school and I helped her with some of the bookkeeping. It was a family business, no question about that.”

Brennan’s father started his company – Amherst Crane Rentals Ltd. – in Scarborough, Ont. in the early 1960s as a one-crane operation. Brennan began working in the company’s office, but started getting very hands-on with the equipment shortly after her father bought a full shop.

“I liked to be outside, so I got into the shop and got involved in watching what they do and why they need things and what broke down and learning a lot about it,” Brennan says.

Brennan took a brief sabbatical in her early 20s, working in the Caribbean islands. When she returned, she began working for Amherst as a bookkeeper and developed further skills in other aspects of the industry.

“It was all just continuous learning and an enjoyment of working with the people in the industry who I find very creative,” Brennan says. “Art and music and cultural things have always been a big part of our lives. My parents were like that and taught us that. So the construction industry sort of follows suit – the people that you need in this business are builders. They always have great ideas and strong conviction, so they move ahead and build. I enjoy that environment, so I’ve made myself a big part of it.”

Today, Brennan says she touches on all aspects of the business – perhaps not as an expert, but well-versed in all of it. She has participated in the development of education for crane operators and has sat on committees with the government for regulatory bodies. She manages the office and staff, and helps with legal issues while also being a capable crane operator, and able to cover for a dispatcher, if need be.

Brennan, and Amherst, joined the CRAC in its second year of existence. Brennan thought it would be wise to join it as a social club and networking opportunity, to get to know people in the industry who had the same type of machinery, the same concerns and the same dealings with manufacturers. Eventually that social club evolved into what the CRAC is today.

“Now it’s becoming more of a voice,” says Brennan. “Obviously, there are projects that are more connected in Canada, so it’s more sophisticated than it was 15 or 20 years ago. It’s been a great asset to already have that base.”

Brennan is particularly proud of the work she was able to contribute to with CRAC, including Red Seal training and a current project looking at law surrounding heavy machines and their impact on the road. She was also very proud of the CRAC conference in Toronto during her time as chair, where they brought in elephants and other animals from the Bowmanville Zoo, based on an incident where cranes were used to rescue elephants that had slid down an embankment at the zoo.

As women in the industry

There was a time when the crane industry was something of a boys’ club. While there have been exceptions going back many, many years (see story on WWII-era crane

operator Rose Grant Young in the October 2016 issue), attitudes and perceptions have persisted. It has been the contributions of women like the three we spoke to for this article that have worked to help reverse those trends. But it hasn’t always been an easy path.

“There’s quite a few challenges being a woman, I think, in any trade,” says Baker. “Bullying is a big factor. Being taken seriously is a huge obstacle that women undertake every day. You can have the same education, you can have more experience than a male. If you say something, the exact same, often times in this industry, they will take a male’s opinion over a female’s opinion.”

Baker says the first time she entered the classroom to get her crane licence, the instructor asked her if she was supposed to be there. She got the impression that he was thrown off by having a woman in his classroom. But by the end of the course, she had proven her aptitude and knowledge and “his tune had very much changed.”

Boreen wouldn’t say she had experienced challenges specifically as a woman, but rather as a new person within the crane community. She credits the men she has worked for as having been extremely generous in their mentoring.

“You start off trying to be what they want you to be, but at the end of the day they accept you for who you are,” says Boreen. “That’s probably the voice we have to give all young men and women in industry – to be who you are in those industries, not a reflection of your gender. The people I work with know my weaknesses and my strengths and we try to put those puzzle pieces together so we have a really strong team. The fear that I had as an individual, I think a young man in the industry would probably feel, too.”

“There are always some challenges over the years, but I’m the kind of personality that let’s that just run off my shoulder,” Brennan says. “I’ve encountered, occasionally over the years, men who have fast attitudes about women, but as Winston Churchill might say, ‘There’s always opportunities to keep your mouth shut.’ I understand that people have their prejudices, so I find ways to work around it and educate them and encourage them slowly rather than confront. It’s worked well for me over the years.”

Brennan says that there may be hard feelings over someone showing themselves to be more capable than someone else, but that would be the same with a man or a woman. They may use being a woman as an excuse, she says, but it’s just that – an excuse. Brennan sees a different “culture of men” and that rather than trying to change it, she looks to make the most of it.

“I’ve worked with strictly men almost, for many, many years of my life,” says Brennan. “I’ve enjoyed that. I can use my feminine power, if that’s what they like to call it these days, to my best advantage without taking advantage of people. At the same time, I understand that some men have to have their pride, and that’s good, and we can work with that.”

And what advice would they have for young women interested in entering the crane industry who might be concerned about such issues?

“If you’re concerned about those issues, don’t enter the crane industry,” says Brennan, bluntly. “If you are willing to confront the issue and learn how to cope and improve it and educate, then you will succeed in this industry, because that is what these people are looking for. They’re looking for empowered individuals, male or female.”

“Go for it,” says Boreen. “Don’t let your own fears stop you from the dreams that you have to have to be in the profession of your choice. There’s people on the other side who will support you, mentor you and will make you a success. We are in an amazing, vibrant industry that you can learn, have lifelong learning, and an amazing career as a woman in the crane industry.”

“I really encourage women to try it,” says Baker. “We need to fix this gap in the labour shortage, right now, in trades. And women can help close that gap. Some people think that it’s just dirty and male dominated. It’s hard labour. It’s not for women. We really need to break down those barriers all across the board, but specifically in the crane industry. Take that risk and start to fill those gaps in our industry. We are capable of doing anything that a male can do.”