Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan

Brothers and Sisters, I trust this finds you and your families safe and healthy. While the trajectory of the Covid-19 virus appears to be waning in many parts of the US and Canada we need to continue our best virus mitigation practices.

Forecasts for construction projects across North America remain robust with predictions of increased activity for the industrial, commercial, and institutional sectors for 2022 and beyond. Accordingly, it is an opportune time to review our goals as a union for the coming year.

BAC is dedicated to the goal of empowering workers in our trades to achieve the highest wages, benefits, and standards for their labor, while enhancing their ability to provide for their families and enriching the communities they live in. The distinction between a goal and wishful thinking is planning. Towards that end, BAC’s objectives for the coming years will be focused in four primary areas: organizing, training, public advocacy, and industry advancement.

According to the most recent Gallup poll, 68% of Americans approve of labor unions. That is the highest approval rating since 1965 and a strong indicator that conditions are ripe for increasing union membership. However, at the same time, corporations, developers, and non-union contractors are fighting in unprecedented ways to prevent workers from joining or being represented by unions. Whether it is the UAW members who fought John Deere for better terms (see page 11), the members of BCTGM who opposed Kellogg’s effort to impose a substandard contract (see page 12), or the craftworkers of Mid-Atlantic Restoration & Masonry (see page 16) organizing for BAC representation, these victories were earned by workers, not given to them.

BAC’s efforts to grow work opportunities for our trades require that we successfully meet the current demand for skilled trowel trades workers. Contractors, developers, and designers base future decisions on current and past performance. Fortunately, we have the tools in place to provide the highest quality training in the industry (see page 19). Combined with aggressive local union campaigns to organize the non-union craftworker, and provide improver training as needed, BAC will remain the preeminent source of skilled craftworkers in the industry.

There is an urgent need to engage the public on the benefits of union construction and the unspoken costs of unfair competition on the backs of workers. This is a message that is resonating loudly with the public. We see it in the successful strike activity across our countries and in a resurgence of organizing activity. Public sentiment that makes the use of non-union contractors unacceptable is a powerful tool. Similarly, we need to stand with elected officials who appreciate that unions are a public good and are not afraid to say so (see page 24).

Lastly, we need to advance the role of all BAC trades in a changing construction industry by engaging owners, developers, and designers on the multiple benefits of masonry construction. This means promoting not only the building performance qualities of the materials and systems that BAC members install, but also the value of the community-sustaining careers that BAC work opportunities provide.

At the end of the day, there are no better representatives of the value that union construction represents than BAC members themselves. Your commitment to, and support of, your local union is what sets us apart.

Stay healthy and stay safe, Brothers and Sisters!