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They Call Me "T"
“Now when I go on a new job I’m qualified to run everything: cranes… loaders.”
Mired in deep, gray slurry, T can be found sitting high in the cab of a mud-covered behemoth of a machine. Her hands delicately maneuvering the boom suspending a one-ton water pump that has broken down. Her eyes peer through the glass windshield intently trained on multiple hand signals. Her skill is apparent because the laborers on the ground easily perform repairs with assurance.
As a member of Local 4, T Lawson has been a member of the International Union of Operating Engineers for 13 years. Born in Boston, she now lives in Dorchester. She is a single mom raising two children & supporting siblings & an extended family, too.
Ms. Lawson began as a nonunion worker but went back to school to learn to manage heavy equipment. “Now when I go on a new job I’m qualified to run everything: cranes…loaders.” Her last job for SUFFOLK CONSTRUCTION was on the Wynn Casino in Everett. Now she is running a huge rubber tire excavator on the Winthrop Center site.
This is one of a series of Photo Stories. Here is the page showing all the stories.