An Afghani Refugee’s Journey from War to a Union Career in Maine

PHOTO: Elevator Constructors apprentice Besmillah Omarzai.

When Besmillah Omarzai of Auburn was a child growing up in Afghanistan, the Taliban killed his older brother, his cousin and their family’s driver in a suicide attack. The horrible tragedy was a major influence on his decision to join the Afghan military and prevent the extremist group who killed his family members from taking power again. Omarzai joined the Afghan army in 2016 and eventually became a Black Hawk helicopter pilot in an elite airborne unit of the Afghan armed forces.

“I was excited for, for what was going to happen after war, after me fighting in the war,” Omarzai told the Bangor Daily News in 2023. “We will have something that we were all, like, expecting and wishing for.”

Then in 2021, the Taliban took control of Kabul and the Afghan government collapsed, as President Ashraf Ghani fled the country. It was a pivotal moment that culminated in the US withdrawing troops, ending a 20-year occupation of the country. Previously, Omarzai had been flying combat missions alongside US forces and when that fateful August day arrived, they had to leave their families and immediately get out of the country.

“I left that day with a bunch of my friends on duty and we never went back,” Omarzai told Maine State Labor News. “There’s a lot that went down that day, but I just don't think I can talk about it. It’s not a really easy topic to talk about.”

Omarzai’s squadron was ordered to leave the country. They flew to an airbase in Uzbekistan where they were kept for one month until American diplomats were able to arrange their transfer to the United Arab Emirates and then to a US Army base in Virginia.

“I felt that as much as we tried, we just failed so, so terribly, that we failed the entire … a whole country and generation,” Omarzai told the BDN.

It wasn’t easy adjusting to life in the United States. He didn’t have family here and didn’t have a lot of the information he needed to start his new life. Then he and his friends learned that their old pilot training supervisor was living in Bangor, so they reached out to him. Omarzai and his fellow Afghan veterans moved to Maine in hopes that their contact could help them get re-certified to fly helicopters again. But the plan fell through.

“We thought it would be good to go somewhere where we knew someone who could help us get on our feet,” said Omarzai. “But that didn't happen the way we planned it. And then I stayed.”  

Omarzai and his pilot friends decided to move to Lewiston. He got his asylum claim approved, applied for his green card and began working a series of jobs. He worked as a caseworker and at a Walmart distribution center, a restaurant and at a bread factory. But it was hard to get by on his low-wage jobs. He not only had to support himself, but he also sent money back home to his parents and siblings in Afghanistan. He still wanted to get licensed to fly, but he didn’t know the process to do it or if he could afford to pay for the training. When he spoke to the Bangor Daily News in 2023 he was struggling to find his way and make sense of his new life in Maine.

“I was a pilot, I was in the army,” he said. “But now, nothing. Like a refugee in a different country. With nothing in hand, no clear future.”

As he was figuring out his next move, Omarzai learned about the Maine AFL-CIO's Union Construction Academy, a program which opens opportunities for all workers, including refugees, asylum seekers, people of color, women, veterans and others, for registered apprenticeships with Maine Building and Construction Trades unions. Union apprenticeships give workers the opportunity to get paid while they take classes and work under the supervision of experienced tradespeople on job sites. The program trains participants to obtain a range of basic certifications to be successful in the building and construction trades. It provides hands-on experience and lessons about unions and the history of the labor movement.

Omarzai in a UCA class.

During one of the classes, Jeff Handibode from the International Union of Elevator Constructors (IUEC) Local 4 gave a presentation about the union and the work its members do. The local represents about 65 members in Maine working from Aroostook County to New Hampshire and the I-495 corridor of northern Massachusetts. Its also one of the best paying of union trades in Maine. A journeyman elevator mechanic earns on average $150,000, with a year with a generous benefit package worth upwards of $65,000, including a pension, quality health insurance and more. Omarzai was originally planning to become a union electrician, but after hearing about the Elevator Constructors, he was very impressed.

“I was kind of curious, but it just seemed too good to be true,” Omarzai said. “I think I was the only guy in the class who expressed interest in the elevator thing. I was like, ‘yeah, I'll go,’ but I was not sure at that point to be honest.”

Omarzai didn’t have much mechanical experience and it is a very competitive application process to get into a Local 4 apprenticeship. But Handibode told Omarzai that he could learn the trade on the job. And if he was interested he could call the union and he would help him apply. Every two years, the union starts taking applicants and it just happened that they were beginning to accept apprentices for a new class. Omarzai and the other pre apprentices were the second cohort to graduate from the UCA in July, 2023. Six months later in January, 2024, Omarzai got a call from the union to schedule a date for an interview and to take the entrance exam. A few days later, the local notified Omarzai that he was third on the list and that they would be in touch. He went back to work and didn’t hear another word from the union for eight months. He called Handibode in September, but a slot still hadn’t opened up yet.

“One day they called me to tell me that there was a position in Maine if I wanted to do it and I was like, ‘yeah I'll do it!’ Then the next day I showed up to the job site and ever since I’ve been working in this job and I'm loving it,” he said.

Handibode said that Omarzai "stood heads and tails above everybody else with his background, his pedigree and his personality. He's the type of person we want. He has a spectacular background in aircraft aviation, maintenance and as helicopter pilot, and so on."

Omarzai has just finished his first year as an apprentice Elevator Constructor. He acknowledges that it can be physically demanding, but it's a good job, he enjoys it and he likes his coworkers.

“I was a little bit nervous at the beginning because I've never done anything like this,” he said. “The job itself, for me it's exciting to get to work with all these different machines that I've never had the chance to and it's exciting to be honest. Every day I get to work with a whole different thing.”

Handibode described Omarzai as a “model student” and a “great apprentice.”

“I hear nothing but good things about this guy up there as an apprentice. The guys up there in Maine love him,” said Handibode. “His instructor says nothing but great things about him. I would take a 100 of him if I could tomorrow.”

Omarzai said he had never had any experience with unions before joining the Elevator Constructors, but he says it’s “amazing” to have people behind him to “support us and have our backs when something goes wrong.”

“They also fight for our rights,” he said “If something goes wrong, there's somebody that would fight for you. It's a collective movement and I actually really like it.”