Aida Aranda served as the Training Director for the Oregon & Southern Idaho Laborers-Employers Training Trust, Administrator of the Oregon Laborers Apprenticeship Program and the Secretary-Treasurer of the Oregon AFL-CIO. A 25-year member of LiUNA and Local 737, Aida was a journey worker Construction Craft Laborer (CCL) with more than 15 years of experience in registered apprenticeship and over a decade in the field as a CCL in the building construction industry. Aida was appointed to the Oregon State Apprenticeship and Training Council and served for two terms. She served on the Portland Metro Workforce Board and on the Board of the Portland Workforce Alliance. Aida participated in different capacities with community organizations, High Schools, and Pre-apprenticeship training programs, such as Oregon Tradeswomen, Constructing Hope, Portland Youth Build, and Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center, supporting pathways to careers in the construction industry.  Aida was a founding member of the Oregon Women Labor Leaders, a group devoted to fostering and elevating women in Labor.

Aida considered registered Union Apprenticeships to be her professional passion. She believed we can help build connections to apprenticeships and make career pathways to the trades an accepted, sought after, and highly regarded career option for youth and workers from all communities.

Aida’s family moved to Oregon in the late sixties as migrant workers harvesting crops in the Willamette Valley. For a short time her family lived at Campo Azul, a migrant labor camp in Washington county. Her family settled in the small family town of Cornelius where she was raised. She recalled walking the picket line with her family during the grape boycotts and learning about the farm workers' fight for better wages and working conditions, and how unions provided them with a voice and representation.