Yesterday, the first 750 people who waited days, forming a "tent city" outside a Queens elevator mechanics union office, received the highly coveted applications for an apprenticeship. A Mount Vernon man who waited three days was exuberant after getting his application, telling WCBS 2, "The sky's the limit after this! You don't wanna keep working these dead-end jobs, check to check to check to check. I don't want to do that anymore."
The apprenticeship pays $14-16/hour, and a full-fledged elevator mechanic can make $40/hour. However, there are only 75-150 apprenticeships available. And while 750 people got applications, hundreds of others weren't so lucky. One man, originally from Ecuador, who joined the line at 10:30 p.m. Sunday night (the first man on line got there at 4 a.m. on Friday) didn't get an application; he told the Daily News, "This was the opportunity of my life. I came to New York to work at a job like this. I'm sad."
The Post spoke to the last person to get an application: Gabriel Granados, who had previously applied to be a firefighter and even passed the test, but the FDNY stopped hiring, said, "I'm relieved, but I'm upset at the situation. So many people were overlooked." Union director Nicholas LaGuardia said, "It's [during] hard times like this with the economy that we return to the same things we have since the end of the Great Depression. People turn to unions. It's still trades that probably will help the economy over the next 20 years."
