Built from the Ground Up
May 2026 – Make sure to look down at the concrete beneath your feet. And notice with gratitude when the AC stays on during a triple-digit summer in Central Washington. You would notice pretty quickly if those disappeared. That foundation happened thanks to the laborers and electricians who show up each morning on a job site, skilled in the trades that shape our lives.
Nate Mack was 24 years old, raising four boys, and working at Burger King in Ephrata when a buddy called and asked if he wanted to join the union. He didn’t even know what a union was. Randy Curry started in the medical field before a cousin in the electrical trade sat him down and changed his direction entirely. Both are now SkillSource board members — Randy as Business Manager of IBEW Local 191, Nate as Field Agent for Laborers’ Local 348 — and both got there because somebody pulled them aside and said “Maybe think about the trades.”
The decision to enter the trades put them each on a career path that didn’t demand a college degree — though Nate just earned his Bachelor’s in Organizational Leadership this past April, which deserves a congratulations! People walk through the doors of the Wenatchee Labor Temple regularly, asking how to get started, and both Randy and Nate are thinking hard about what removes barriers and what creates them — including the C average in high school algebra required to enter an electrical apprenticeship.
They talked about what a job site morning actually feels like, why younger workers are making them rethink their own relationship to work-life balance, and why the conversation around data centers and solar farms in the region is missing the voice of the people who build them.
Thank you to Nate and Randy for sharing their stories and perspectives with us, and for helping build and strengthen our community from the ground up. See the conversation.
We also want to acknowledge board member Augustine Gallegos of the Teamsters, who planned to join this conversation and wasn’t able to make it. We look forward to having him in a future conversation.
▶ Watch the full conversation below.
Next Up ...
The next Common Thread conversation will take place in Fall 2026. The Zoom link for the next conversation will be published on the SkillSource events calendar.
