Category: Housing, Justice, Listening Sessions, Personal Stories, Poverty News & Policy Updates, The Safety Net, Wealth Building, Work
October 02nd, 2025
This transcript has been edited for clarity and length.
#Listen2Workers is a campaign connecting workers to elected officials for conversations about workers’ lives, challenges, ideas, and dreams.
Asm. Matt Haney: Tell me a little about yourself.
Meg-Anne Pryor: I was born and raised in San Francisco. I have two boys in public school in San Francisco, same as me when I was coming up. I am an apprenticeship coordinator which is great—it gives me the ability to change people’s lives, get them a good paying career, good union jobs. And that for me is just rewarding.
Asm. Haney: What does your typical day look like?
Meg-Anne: We’re 7-5:00, but a lot times I’m still on at 8 PM—going to a career fair, a meeting, doing outreach, helping out the new apprentices that don’t yet know what trade they want to get into.
Usually I start my day in the office, handle any paperwork. Otherwise I’m in the field seeing my apprentices, getting their advancements done, checking to see if they’re getting proper training, making sure they’re getting treated fairly. If they get reprimanded on the job site, we talk about it.
I go to a lot of after school programs, tell them about our apprenticeship and try to encourage young people to join. Sometimes if you see somebody who looks like you, who came from where you came from, being successful in a great career—you’re like, okay, if she can do it, I can do it.
Asm. Haney: How did you get into this work?
Meg-Anne: I went through CityBuild pre-apprenticeship program. They helped me get into the Laborers’ Union. I was in Local 67—Asbestos, Lead and Abatement. You had to wear a Tyvek suit and the respirator, the whole nine. But my forever trade was being an Operator.
Asm. Haney: Why did you want to do Operators?
Meg-Anne: It’s mentally hard, but not physically hard. I knew with the Operators I could be sitting in the seat pulling levers. I’m like, I’m going to get paid to play in the dirt. You can’t beat that. [laughter]
Asm. Haney: Tell me a little about CityBuild.
Meg-Anne: You get acclimated with intense physical labor. You get training on how to use the skill saw, how to swing a hammer properly, how to tie a rebar. We did a little tile setting. We got to get on the forklifts, scissor lifts, scaffolding. So you get a taste of the majority of the trades that are based in San Francisco and Oakland. Maybe about halfway through you pick what trade you want to go into. And CityBuild pays for your work boots and supplies for that trade. So they pay for all this to help you get started.
Asm. Haney: And what made you decide to go into the trades in general?
Meg-Anne: I was tired of working the dead-end jobs—working at a shoe store, a clothing store, an after-school program. My checks were maybe $300 to $400 every two weeks—$600 if I worked full-time. And I was like, how am I ever going to buy a house, buy a nice car, travel, do the things I want to do? So my cousin was like, hey, let’s go to CityBuild!
Asm. Haney: And how has the union been—both in the Laborers and now with the Operators—in supporting your career?
Meg-Anne: Great. I was with The Laborers for 3 years. They exposed me to construction. So that got me used to a crew, who I report to, how things go. It was like riding the bike with training rules. And then the Operating Engineers was like, the training wheels are off. Let’s go. And I felt very at home—the camaraderie, the people. It was for me.
Asm. Haney: And what are some of the biggest challenges that you have?
Meg-Anne: When I started out as an apprentice, a lot of people were so nervous. Oh, do you know how to operate the equipment? We don’t want you to break anything. We don’t wanna get anybody run over.
Asm. Haney: Wait, why?
Meg-Anne: Just because I was a woman in the trades, and an apprentice, and new. And it’s like, Hey, give me a chance. Let me show you what I can do. But having that strong union backing gave me confidence to stand up tall, put my chest out and be like I got this. Y’all need to sit down.
Asm. Haney: I know now you’re also involved in advocacy and policy change. Tell me about that.
Meg-Anne: A lot of people that come to our union, especially the apprentices, are like I don’t vote, or I’m not really political. So I try to get their core values. Do you care about putting food on the table? Do you care about safe working conditions? Then I can tell them, this guy or this girl has the same core value as you. And then they’re like, oh, we’re on the same page. They’re not as different as I thought they were.
Asm. Haney: Have there been policy changes that have made things either harder or better for you and other workers?
Meg-Anne: Healthcare has been huge for us. A lot of our sister locals and other unions have been affected by that. So I try to encourage everybody to get out and support them on that. I tell everybody just because they haven’t come for our healthcare yet doesn’t mean they won’t try. The harder we fight for our other union brothers and sisters and make sure that they’re secured and taken care of, it will help us all in the long run. And the cuts to Medicaid and Medicare are just astronomical.
Asm. Haney: Do you feel like elected officials could do more to connect with workers or with apprentices?
Meg-Anne: Yeah, just talking to them, getting their perspectives, and say, hey, how can I better help you? Develop relationships so workers and politicians can better understand each other.
Asm. Haney: And if there was one thing you could tell politicians in California, or in Washington, D.C. what would it be?
Meg-Anne: The people who are holding the line—I think they’re doing great to continue to stand up for what’s right. That’s what I would tell everybody that’s in a political position to have some power. We gotta hold the line in solidarity.
Asm. Haney: Thank you for sharing your story with me and for all the work that you do. I’ve learned a lot from you.
Assemblymember Matt Haney represents the 17th California Assembly District.Meg-Anne Pryor is an operating engineer and apprenticeship coordinator at the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 3.