May 7, 2010:NWLP
5/4/10
10:12 AM
Page 5
National building trades leaders establish partnerships
with key industry players to create jobs in private-sector
WASHINGTON, D.C. (PAI) —
Union presidents who sit on the AFL-
CIO Building and Construction Trades
Department (BCTD) Executive Board
have spent the past two years trying to
build relationships with key industry
players in order to create private-sector
union jobs, Building Trades President
Mark Ayers said.
And in at least one large construction
area — nuclear power — they appear
to be succeeding. BCTD signed an
agreement April 19 with a utility in
Texas to have union labor build two nu-
clear power plants. That makes three
signed agreements covering five poten-
tial nuclear power plants in the last two
years. The other plants are in Georgia.
The fact that four of the five plants
are in the South is not by coincidence,
as construction union presidents want
to expand labor’s presence there and
are uniting with community groups to
do so — by bringing well-paying jobs.
The power plant agreements, and
similar construction pacts the depart-
ment is pursuing with other industries,
are important. Construction joblessness
is above 20 percent, and bank credit for
private construction has been yanked in
the recession.
“In better times, about 75 percent of
all dollars spent on construction were
private dollars,” Ayers told the several
thousand delegates at the department’s
legislative conference, in his keynote
address April 19.
Even with last year’s stimulus law
federal construction means “we have
seen three major government jobs in
Hawaii, California and Oregon go
union in the past few weeks. “Since last
summer, 21 of 25 Energy Department
projects were covered by PLAs. There
will be many more. That’s what we’re
fighting for and that’s what the presi-
dent is delivering for us ... jobs,” Ayers
declared.
• The health care fight “is not over”
even after Obama signed the massive
revision of the U.S. health insurance
system. “It is far from perfect ... We will
continue to push for employer mandates
in the construction industry that level
the playing field for small union em-
ployers — life blood of our unions —
and for a public option that will provide
real competition for the insurance com-
panies.”
Oregon U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley is escorted by a delegation of Oregon union
officials to the podium to speak at the AFL-CIO Building and Construction
Trades Legislative Conference. The gathering was held April 18-21 in
Washington, D.C. (Photo courtesy Bill Burke, Page One Photography)
still inserting federal construction proj-
ect funds into the economy — con-
struction union legislative reps said ap-
proximately 71 percent of those funds
are obligated but still unspent — the nu-
clear plant contracts means that “in
essence we are building our own recov-
ery act with the private sector,” he
added.
The nuclear power construction
alone will be worth $50 billion and 100
million hours of new work over the next
decade, he said.
Other top points in Ayers’ keynote
address:
• President Barack Obama’s execu-
tive order last year, restoring the option
of project labor agreements (PLAs) in
• Delegates were urged to push for
“a balanced energy and climate bill that
will generate tens of thousands of con-
struction jobs now and in the future.”
The House passed a cap-and-trade cli-
mate control bill in December.
Ayers urged all building trades
unions to reach out to low-income and
minority communities and recruit
youths for training and apprenticeship
programs. He praised building trades
councils in Chicago, New York, Los
Angeles, Cleveland, San Francisco and
Portland for doing so.
“As we build better, more-collabora-
tive relationships with communities, we
also build power. And when the inter-
ests of our unions and the communities
in which we work converge, there is no
power that can stop us, no adversary
that can divide us,” Ayers said.
Tom Markgraf
Multnomah County Commissioner
District 2
“I have always stood with labor. I hope you stand
with me on May 18th! Let's bring jobs back to
Multnomah County!"
Endorsed by:
Northwest Oregon Labor Council,
Joint Council of Teamsters Local 37,
Columbia Pacific Building Trades Council,
Iron Workers Local 29, IBEW Local 48,
Laborers Local 320, Painters Local 10,
International Longshore & Warehouse Union #8
MAY 7, 2010
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
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