BAC Well-Represented at Oregon Building Trades Convention

JOURNAL: ISSUE 3 - 2013

Officers of Local 1 Oregon were joined by BAC Secretary-Treasurer Henry Kramer and West Regional Director David Sheppard at the 51st Oregon State Building and Construction Trades Council (OBTC) Convention in August. The OBTC represents more than 25,000 construction workers in 29 member unions and six District Councils across the state.

Special guests included Oregon State Senator Lee Beyer, the son of 61-year Local 1 OR member Louis Beyer. "Senator Beyer grow up in a union bricklayer's household and is truly a champion for the Building Trades in the Oregon Senate," said John Mohils, the OBTC Executive Secretary and a proud member as well as former Business Manager of Local 1.

Secretary-Treasurer Kramer, who had the distinction of being the first International BAC officer to address at the OBTC Convention, stressed the importance of building trades' unity in defending against the onslaught of state efforts to rescind prevailing wage protections or ban Project Labor Agreements. "Solidarity will always be essential to what we do," said Kramer, adding, "but we don't have the luxury of putting it on the back burner or on some distant goal-line. Because if we're not 'all-in' at the first and ten, we'll never make it beyond the line of scrimmage."

First row from left, BAC West Regional Director David Sheppard and Oregon State Senator Lee Beyer; second row from left, Local 1 OR Business Representative Mike Titus, Local 1 OR Business Manager Matt Eleazer, BAC Secretary- Treasurer Henry Kramer, Local 1 WA President Dennis Becker, and OBTC Executive Secretary and Local 1 OR member John Mohlis.