Seize the Moment

The demand for skilled workers across the US and Canada is reaching record levels, while at the same time working families face growing costs for food, energy, health care, and other daily essentials. If ever there was a time for workers to band together to extract a fair share for their labor, that moment is now. Therefore, I ask that you take a moment to read the article on our broken economy (page 19) and provide your feedback on what priorities our countries and our union should focus on.

BAC members have always understood that their skills, work ethic, commitment to each other and to their community are what distinguishes them. It is also what enables local unions to bargain for the wages and benefits that BAC members expect and deserve. Accordingly, it is only fitting that we recognize the skills and commitment of BAC members across our International Union as exemplified by the 2022 Craft Award winners (page 3).

The winning projects, craftworkers, leaders, and individual members featured in this issue exemplify the best of what BAC stands for. These awards provide an opportunity to recognize excellence in our trades, in service to our union, and in our contributions to local communities. While we celebrate these outstanding achievements, we know that thousands of BAC members live these values every day.

There is no clearer demonstration of these values than the active role that seasoned BAC craftworkers take on every day in mentoring the next generation of craftworkers (page 23). It is an essential role that generations of BAC members have taken up, and one that we must build upon. Mentorship is not just an organizational priority to ensure the future of our union and our crafts, it is also about giving that younger worker the opportunity to create a better life. As the most successful mentors recognize, while we make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.

The care and respect we owe each other as union members and craftworkers is never more important than on the jobsite, and safety is a paramount obligation for all workers and contractors. BAC is expanding its efforts in this area by providing online webinars for members, contractors, and the building industry, along with providing safety training through local training centers and IMTEF (page 29). The right of every worker to return home from work as safe and healthy as the morning they set out is a basic right that should never be trumped by haste or ignorance.

Accomplished tradespeople know that no building, no structure, no project is built by a single individual. Rather it is the product of many craftworkers harnessing their collective skills in harmony. Our union is the same.

BAC is comprised of skilled and committed workers who collectively leverage the value of their labor in a local market and establish the conditions under which they will work. The ability of our union to deliver the wages, benefits, and work conditions we expect depends on the readiness of each member to assist in our ongoing efforts to organize non-union workers and contractors.

So let’s build our union with the same care and precision that we exercise as skilled craftworkers