BAC Journal > Together We Stand: AFL-CIO President Trumka, NABTU President McGarvey Extoll Values of Union Life

Together We Stand: AFL-CIO President Trumka, NABTU President McGarvey Extoll Values of Union Life

“We built the country we love—and we are ready to rebuild it, too. You have built communities, not only in the literal sense, but in the work you have done that has gone beyond the jobsite to enrich your communities through charitable work and service to others.” — Richard Trumka, President, AFL-CIO

“You will never properly be thanked for your contributions for decades, which will lead to this [therapeutic] breakthrough. But I'm here to tell you that you have made a difference in this world.” — Sean McGarvey, President, NABTU


Each day you head to jobsite, the spirit and passion the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers (BAC) founders set forth is alive and well in everything you do. It is the call of duty—building communities and building lives—that every BAC Member takes to heart.

In his virtual speech to Union workers during the BAC 2020 Convention, Richard Trumka, President of AFL-CIO, expressed his appreciation for the effort every BAC member has made braving the unprecedented set of circumstances put on today's jobsites. 

Trumka to BAC Convention
At the BAC 2020 Convention, President of AFL-CIO Richard Trumka, expressed his appreciation for the effort every BAC member has made braving the unprecedented set of circumstances put on today's jobsite. 

"The coronavirus has taken its toll on America," Trumka said, “but many of you go to work every day [in spite of deadly pandemic]. Too often, you don't have the PPE you need or the workplace protection that you deserve. But that has not stopped you."

In a unifying call to arms, Trumka called on BAC members to continue to rise up in their commitment to improve the quality of life for their brothers and sisters—on and off the jobsite. In his impassioned speech, Trumka lauded BAC’s tireless efforts to provide a unified front across every aspect of the organization’s mission statement, from worker safety, to apprenticeship programs and helping to deliver a new administration that will aid the plight of today’s union worker.  

“We built the country we love—and we are ready to rebuild it, too,” Trumka said. “You have built communities, not only in the literal sense—schools and churches, hospitals and homes—but in the work you have done that has gone beyond the jobsite to enrich your communities through charitable work and service to others.” 

Trumka also cited the critical importance that the Apprentice Training program plays in the Union’s past, present and future. “The program helps transform a job into a trade, benefiting all craftworkers engaged in our profession. It transforms a trade into a lifelong career—one that provides good wages and good benefits. And it provides a path to the middle class.”

One of the ways that BAC continues to make a difference beyond the jobsite is through its philanthropic efforts. Take BAC’s partnership with North America’s Building Trade Unions (NABTU). Over the years, the two organizations have combined resources to help find a cure for diabetes, raising more than $10 million over the past eight years alone.

In his Convention address, NABTU’s President Sean McGarvey lauded both groups’ effort in working with the Diabetes Research Institute (DRI) and director, Camillo Ricordi, M.D., to find a therapeutic resolution for the coronavirus. Earlier in the year, Dr. Ricordi met with the governing board president of NABTU to solicit their help in securing resources to expand the trial and expedite the process of embryonic stem cell research in treating the virus.

After the meeting, NABTU pledged to provide $3 million in the effort to battle the virus, in addition to helping raise $30 million to bolster the manufacturing capacity once a safe therapy is approved. 

Sean McGarvey to BAC 2020 Convention
NABTU's President Sean McGarvey lauded BAC's commitment to building communities and building lives.

“[Recently] the findings from a top secret finding were forwarded to the New England Journal of Medicine for validation,” McGarvey said. “I am very hopeful that you will hear about a breakthrough therapy that has the potential to save millions of lives in the United States and Canada, and across the globe. And understand that the only reason this will happen is because of the work that BAC and NABTU members did in raising money for the research.”

McGarvey said that the efforts again prove BAC’s commitment to building communities and building lives. “Once again, with everything going on in your lives, you stepped up and helped us commit $3 million to expedite this process. When it is validated, and hospitals across the country, across the continent, want to access this therapy, they will go to the North American Building Trades’ embryonic stem cell repository for those therapies—named in your honor for the work that you've done, not just now, but for decades for DRI.”

In all of the accomplishments that McGarvey has been involved with over the years with NABTU and BAC, this is one of the most exciting to be a part of—not just for members and their families, but for compatriots across the world. 

“Once again, we stepped up,” McGarvey said. “The Building Trades stepped up. BAC stepped up. You will never properly be thanked for your contributions for decades, which will lead to this [therapeutic] breakthrough. But I'm here to tell you that on behalf of Sean McGarvey—son, father, grandfather—that you have made a difference in this world.”