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Ironworkers Announce Paid Maternity Leave Benefit

The Iron Workers (IW) and the Ironworker Management Progressive Action Cooperative Trust (IMPACT) announced a new paid maternity leave benefit at the recent 2017 Iron Workers/IMPACT Conference in San Diego. The organization is reportedly the first to introduce a generous paid maternity leave benefit in the building trades, and the announcement was made after a panel of ironworker women on safety and diversity discussed the role of female ironworkers and unique challenges they face on the job site.

"We are very proud to be the first to introduce a paid maternity program in the building trades," said General President of IW, Eric Dean. "It's about time we make our industry a level playing field for women and make diversity and inclusion a priority."

The new IW paid maternity leave benefit includes six months of pre-delivery and six to eight weeks of post-delivery paid leave.

"When we first started talking about it, I wasn't sure how we'd pull it off and what it would cost, but we realized that it's an investment because we want our well-trained ironworker women to come back to work," added  CEO of Ben Hur Construction Co. and co-chair of IMPACT, Bill Brown.