Pioneer’s Women in Manufacturing
Today is International Women's Day and Pioneer is celebrating our women in manufacturing who work in every area of our three plants. Someone asked, “Do you really have women working in production?” The answer is, “YES WE DO!”
Back in 1985 a new team was showing up to work on Pioneer’s airplane cargo liner orders. That team was on the blue and white bus from the Washington State Corrections Center for Women (Purdy) in Gig Harbor. The bus rolled up and 28 women filed out from the Purdy Work Release program. From that point on women started getting hired and trained to work in aerospace manufacturing in all the divisions.
As a full-service sheet metal fabrication and machine shop, Pioneer Industries prides itself on producing high-quality products at competitive prices. We are a key Tier 1 supplier in the aerospace industry and we produce for the commercial industry also.
Women who were formerly incarcerated perform work in a wide array of production, management and supervisory roles at Pioneer Industries. They still work in the cargo liner division at Plant 2 and in our assembly division, but they also operate water jets, perform quality assurance, shipping and receiving, and work in administrative roles. At Plant 1, we have women who are CNC mill operators, schedulers, materials managers, purchasing agents, part mark leads, assemblers and those who work on the finish line just to name a few jobs.
We also have women in the apprenticeship program offered in partnership with the Aerospace Joint Apprenticeship Committee (AJAC) and local community colleges. The program provides occupational skills that combines 93% supervised on-the-job training experience with 7% classroom instruction. Men and women have the opportunity to earn their CNC (machinist) operator certificate in two years, and continue on to become a journeyman (master machinist) after four years of satisfactory progression through the program.
We salute all of our women employees in manufacturing and thank them for their contribution in making Pioneer Industries an award winning manufacturer in the aerospace and commercial divisions.
