Success is Where Opportunity Meets Preparation

BAC delegates will gather in Boston, Massachusetts for the 2022 Special Convention this fall to chart our union’s course for the next several years. The central charge to the delegates assembled from across the US and Canada will be to establish the International Union’s priorities for growing our union to better advance the interests of BAC members on the job and in their communities. We will meet to review and revise our union’s programs to ensure that BAC is prepared to meet the emerging challenges and opportunities that face us in the workplace, and in society.

BAC’s apprenticeship and training programs are essential elements to ensuring that our members are prepared to meet the challenges of an evolving construction industry. We will recognize and celebrate these programs during the 2022 BAC/IMI International Apprentice Contest hosted in conjunction with our Convention in Boston. The contest will feature apprentices from across both our countries who have emerged from local and regional contests to compete for the title of best in the business within their respective crafts (see pages 16–18). The preparation and passion for their craft demonstrated by these apprentices is testimony to the enduring value that BAC training represents.

The AFL-CIO held its quadrennial convention this past June in Philadelphia, where BAC delegates convened with other labor leaders (see pages 9–10). AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler and Secretary
Treasurer Fred Redmond, elected by acclamation, delivered a call to action for all affiliates “to meet this moment with new innovations and ideas that show unions are modern, relevant and the place
to go as workplaces evolve and change.” Shuler announced the goal of adding one million new workers to the AFL-CIO’s roll – a charge that all affiliated unions, including BAC, now need to answer (see more
about J. Ginger organizing campaign on page 12).

This summer, in the face of record heat waves across the US and Canada, BAC sought to address the serious threat that heat-related injuries pose by producing a webinar for members focusing on heat-illness prevention. The International Union continues its efforts to push lawmakers to address the dangers that construction workers face from extreme heat exposure by adopting stronger safety standards (see pages 24–25). BAC is equally focused on protecting the pensions that our members worked a lifetime to achieve. After years of empty promises, we finally secured protection for retirement benefits when the Biden Administration signed the American Rescue Plan into law (see page 22).

And in British Columbia (BC), workers secured a victory for the right to form a union when 55% or more of a contractor’s workforce signs a union membership card (see page 26). BC’s card check law, signed into law by the NDP government, prevents employers from interfering with workers’ free choice to join a union. When we head to the polls let’s remember those elected officials that stood with workers when it counted!

Stay healthy and stay safe, Brothers and Sisters!