At 6:45 a.m. in a dingy worker break room in Detroit's massive Cobo Center, Katrina Kudzia starts her transformation into a "bad ass" union ironworker, grabbing her welder's helmet and tucking her scarf-wrapped long hair into a hardhat. It's a routine she has followed for 17 years.
That "Kat" Kudzia has the hard edge to survive in the trades is clear from the stickers on her hardhat and the tattoos on her body, including Rosie the Riveter prominent on her forearm. That she has the skill of a pro and the earned respect of her male peers is equally clear.