Construction jobs luring workers from other fields

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawai'i's red-hot construction industry and the promise of good-paying jobs for decades to come is luring white-collar workers such as Duane Kuratsu out of their offices and into the world of lunchbox working stiffs.

Duane Kuratsu, 31, assistant building manager for the Queen's Medical Center, joined the Hawai'i Carpenters Union apprentice program to learn a new trade. Although new carpenters start at the bottom, they can eventually make more than $30 an hour. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

in an industry that could eventually earn him $31.55 an hour as a journeyman, plus generous medical and retirement plans.

Kuratsu and others like the idea of steady work from 50-year contracts between the military and private developers to build, renovate and maintain 16,456 Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and Marine homes on O'ahu.

Kuratsu current job is handling leasing paperwork and other building management issues at the Queen's Medical Center. But he's on the union's waiting list for his first carpentry job.

"I thought I'd take a chance," he said. "What do you have to lose? The pay was definitely there, and the benefits, too."

It may be no surprise that blue-collar construction unions are being flooded with applicants right out of high school, but what is unusual is the number of older office workers turning to the trades.

"The news of all of the military construction and upswing in Hawai'i's economy means there are more people applying because of the greater interest," said Ron Taketa, financial secretary and business representative of the carpenters union, Hawai'i's largest trade union. "It has really benefitted our recruitment efforts."

Denis Mactagone, the carpenters union's director of training, believes many of the white-collar applicants dreamed of someday working with their hands.

"Instead, they did what their parents wanted them to do — get an education," Mactagone said. "Now they're interested again because they heard the pay is good. They know they've got to work hard. But once they get hooked up, it's long-term. Those 50-year contracts with the military means there's going to be work for a long time."

Most of Hawai'i's trade unions require only a high school degree or equivalent and the ability to pass both a drug screen and an eight-grade math test.

The entrance requirements were no problem for Kuratsu, who took college prep classes at Hawaii Baptist Academy (Class of '91), then graduated from the University of Hawai'i in 1996 with a degree in business management.

Kuratsu worked in the insurance industry for four years, then switched to Queen's building management department, overseeing paperwork and property management for the medical center's physician office buildings.

He never even took wood shop in school, although he did build the occasional tree house as a kid, spent a couple summers helping his uncle renovate houses and occasionally picks up a hammer and power saw for projects at home.

"I can't really say that I've really been exposed to that kind of work," Kuratsu said. "I've always been in an office environment."

The union offered a three-day seminar in August at Honolulu Community College to fine-tune the skills of such apprentices.

"I think I did OK," Kuratsu said. "I'm not afraid of hard work and getting dirty, that's for sure."

Ed Paguirigan just started on his first job site Thursday, working for Hawaiian Dredging at The Peninsula housing project in Hawai'i Kai.

Switching careers means Paguirigan will take a pay cut from $22 an hour to just over $12. But his pay will increase about every six months until he makes journeyman scale in four to five years.

Paguirigan, 39, loves being outside and working with his hands after a 16-year career as a graphic designer — 10 of them spent behind a computer.

Paguirigan's father was a carpenter, and his parents suggested carpentry as a career when he graduated from Radford High School in 1992. Instead, Paguirigan went to UH to study graphic design.

But as he began renovating a Kailua condominium that he and his wife own, Paguirigan fell in love with the job of building new stairs and kitchen cabinets.

"I've been doing the work on the weekends and really liking it," he said. "I started thinking, 'I like doing this more than work.'"

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8085.