Able to Retire with Dignity
Thorleif “Leif ” Boro is a BAC member currently enjoying his well-earned and fought for pension. Starting with the union in 1987, Brother Boro is proud of his career as union bricklayer. “I loved it, working with my hands, I miss it,” Boro said. “I had a lot of friends, apprentices that I helped… It was just really enjoyable.”
Boro started out working non-union, but when he had an opportunity to join BAC, he jumped. He was out of his apprenticeship a year later. “I love my union, I love the whole thing about it — the people, the work we did, caring about each other,” Boro said. “When I worked non-union, I was out there by myself.”
GETTING INVOLVED
Brother Boro served in his local, Local 5 New York (now merged with Local 1), as Secretary for many years, getting involved “because I cared.”
He was a strong advocate for the union on the jobsite, enforcing the union shop and organizing new members. When working on the Davis Barracks at West Point University the contractor hired out-of-state, non-union workers; “I told him, ‘They can’t work here,’” Boro recalled. “So, I signed them up. They are still in the union now.”
While salting, he saw the difference with many non-union contractors. “You get quality work with the BAC because we care about what we do; we do it correctly,” Boro explained. Without prevailing wages to maintain a standard for public projects, “everyone would lowball the bids.” He has been salting on jobs where he has had to redo work of other workers, adding to the cost.
PENSION SAVED
After the 2008 Financial Crisis, the Local 5 New York pension was hit hard, and not enough new workers were coming in to replenish the losses. Local 5 members, along with over 1 million other workers, desperately needed legislative support to fix what Wall Street broke. Thankfully, because of the Biden-Harris administration’s inclusion of the Butch Lewis Act into the American Rescue Plan, Boro and his other BAC brothers and sisters will receive the pension they earned.
“Nothing was happening when Trump was in there, and as soon as Biden was put in, boom, we got it. That tells you something about priorities,” Boro said. “Without Joe Biden, I would not have a pension right now, I wouldn’t have a house… I’d have lost it all.”
“With the election coming up, I am noticing a lot of union members are looking toward Trump, which I don’t understand,” Boro emphasized. “He is a BS artist. He will just lie, lie, lie to get elected and if he gets in there again, he isn’t going to care one bit for anyone but himself.”
“Harris is going to follow Joe’s lead on labor,” Boro continued. “As President, Joe Biden was always for union workers, and she saw that as his VP. Nothing bad is going to happen to union families while she is President, only good. People can get good, union jobs because of the laws in place now — like prevailing wage. If we lose that, then we are done."