Jermaine Johnson is a Dorchester guy, in the last year of his five-year apprenticeship with Local 12 of the plumbers union.

For the first few years of that apprenticeship, whenever Johnson got called in for mandatory training, he filed for and got unemployment benefits, something to tide him over when he was not working. Then, last year, that changed. He couldn’t file for unemployment. Instead, he lost a couple of paychecks as he went to mandatory classes.

“It’s not fair,’’ Johnson said. “We pay into unemployment. And when there’s mandatory training, we can’t work. At the end of the day, we all have families to feed.’’

For many years, apprentices used to work all day, then go to school at night when there was mandatory training. But there was a consensus that apprentices were not retaining the training as well as they should because many were tired after a day’s work. Others were commuting long distances to the training.

After the training was switched to days, the Patrick administration in 2010 issued what was essentially a waiver, allowing apprentices to file for unemployment for the weeks they were participating in mandatory training. The waiver was directed at the requirement that workers must be available to work while collecting unemployment benefits.

But last July, the Baker administration rescinded that waiver. A memo from the state Department of Unemployment Assistance said that anyone engaged in “apprentice training or union-required skills enhancement training shall be deemed as failing to meet the availability’’ to work standard.

The new directive may be on sound legal footing, but it seems a bit petty. And, after you strip away all the legal mumbo jumbo, what it means is working stiffs are getting stiffed because they have to go to mandatory training.

Depending on the trade in question, an apprentice could miss up to three weeks of pay a year, according to Frank Callahan, president of the Massachusetts Building Trades Council.

“Unemployment isn’t even a full week’s pay,’’ said Callahan. “All it does is take the sting off. You’re talking about a lot of young people who cannot afford to miss a week’s pay.’’

There are about 8,000 apprentice plumbers, pipe fitters, iron workers, carpenters, laborers, and sheet metal workers registered with the state. While it’s hard to get an exact figure, Callahan estimates the amount of money we’re talking about is maybe $3 million to $5 million a year.

Callahan said Massachusetts has a high standard of trade work, in part because it has a comprehensive apprenticeship program for so many trades. We are way ahead of other parts of the country, and employers are just as enthusiastic about apprentice programs as the unions. Five states — Rhode Island, Connecticut, Ohio, Washington, and California — allow apprentices to collect unemployment benefits while they take part in mandatory training. Massachusetts would become the sixth if an amendment to the state budget passes this year.

Jermaine Johnson was among the apprentices who fanned across Beacon Hill, meeting with lawmakers, trying to explain their plight, that they were looking to get a benefit they pay for.

“I’d like to think they get it,’’ Johnson said of legislators. “People might say, ‘Well, you’re only talking about missing a week or two or three. But I’d say, what would you do if you didn’t get paid for a week or two or three? What would that do to your family?’’

Apprentices are a boon to the economy. They are apprentices not just to the trades, but to the incredible shrinking middle class. They typically earn a lot more than comparable workers without university degrees. They end up paying more taxes, and they also end up getting an education that isn’t saddled with the ridiculous debt that so many kids coming out of college have. But at the end of the day, they’re working people, and working people shouldn’t get stiffed because we have higher standards than so many other states.

Kevin Cullen is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at cullen@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeCullen.