Victor Torres Builds Dreams with BAC

For BAC Local 4 California member Victor Torres, joining the union was the shot he needed to fulfill his dream of economic security. “My family was poor… no college graduates or nothing. I had big dreams, but no bridge. I’m thinking, ‘how am I going to get there,’” he questioned. “All I needed was an opportunity, a chance, and I got that with the union.”

At a young age, Brother Torres needed a good job. “I was a father in high school, and I needed to provide. So, I asked my cousin, ‘can I get a job in construction,’” he said. “The foreman saw I was hustling, and I was hungry to learn. He said ‘I can’t teach you good here. There is no future for you here. But my friend is in the union, and they need apprentices.’”

UNION DIFFERENCE

Brother Torres immediately knew that bricklaying was for him. When he was an apprentice, he utilized every chance to learn more. “I loved my time as an apprentice,” Torres said. “I would have a lot of questions at work like ‘What’s this?’ ‘Why do we do that?’ or ‘How do I do this?’ or I would see some masonry on the drive home and wonder ‘How do they build that?’”

At work Torres found his coworkers did not have time on the job to answer all his questions, “but at school, I would come with a list of questions — I’d write them down on my phone — and bombard my teacher, and he would answer everything and go into detail with me,” he said. “Learning how to properly use your tools and harness your skills was what was emphasized… that is what makes or breaks you — if you do good work or not. That is how you keep a job.”

Twenty-two-year-old Torres is now a foreman with Largo Concrete, a major Southern California mason contractor. “I used my apprenticeship time wisely, and I would ask about blueprints, leadership, and how to manage a crew. I learned that all at school,” he explained. 

Torres is acutely aware of all of the benefits he now has as a union bricklayer that were not available working non-union, “Non-union you can work for a lot less; less safety, less breaks, less everything. I am secure; I have benefits and I have a rate,” he continued. “I have uncles still working non-union. They’re 55. They are saying how they should do something for retirement, but I am thinking it’s kind of late now. I have a retirement building already.”

BRIGHT FUTURE

As a BAC journey-level bricklayer, Torres is excited about the endless possibilities his career has. “There is a ladder in the company, there is a ladder in the union. I could be a teacher later. I could be an organizer. I could go help people like others helped me.

“I could travel. I could work in Colorado as a journeyman bricklayer, Washington, or Hawaii. That’s another thing I think about, if I decide I want to move,” he said. “I can take my skills and join the union in another state. Even Canada if I wanted to.”

Before joining BAC, “I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life, and I didn’t know how I was going to take care of my family — and the union gave me all that. They gave me a future, and security for my family,” Torres said. “I kind of think someone is going to smack me and wake me up from this dream.”