Business Manager's Message
On June 1st, 2014, the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers merged Local 2-AB and Local 4-AB into Local 1-AB. The goal was simple: to concentrate administrative responsibility for the entire province of Alberta into a single local, and focus our resources on organizing and working with our signatory contractors across Alberta.
The only way to strengthen the position of our existing contractors is by adding more Union contractors, and by putting more resources into training and recruitment of qualified craftworkers. The only way that we're going to be able to do that is by talking to tradespeople and contractors, and showing them the advantages of a strong trowel trades union. Our representatives can't do that important work if they're stuck in an office balancing books and handling correspondence.
Every member of the Local 1 team will now be able to dedicate themselves 100% to organizing new members, promoting BAC to contractors who need skilled manpower, and-perhaps most importantly-servicing our contractor partners.
On a day to day level, things aren't going to change overnight. Your collective bargaining agreements are the same as they were before, and your fringe benefits will remain the same, but we will now be able to put more resources into working with you to strengthen our industry.
I look forward to meeting those of you I don't already know in the coming weeks and months. Please don't hesitate to call me with any questions or concerns-or just to introduce yourself. We know that our members are most important to us, and we want to work closely with you as we continue to build Alberta's union trowel trades industry.
Sincerely;
Alan Ramsay,
Business Manager/Financial Secretary