The Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD), commonly known as North America's Building Trades Unions (NABTU), is a trade department of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO) with 14 affiliated labor unions in the building trades. It was originally founded by the American Federation of Labor in 1907.
History North America's Building Trades Unions was founded by the American Federation of Labor (AFL) at its November 1907 Convention in Norfolk, Virginia, as a Department of Building Trades.Constitution of NABTU August 2015, 46 pages In 1937, its name was changed to Building and Construction Trades Department of the American Federation of Labor--Congress of Industrial Organizations.
Affiliates North America's Building Trades Unions is a labor federation of 14 North American unions in the building trade.About us, North America's Building Trades Unions NABTU website, n.d, retrieved 20 May 2017 Affiliates are the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), International Brotherhood of Teamsters (Teamsters), International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers (BAC), International Union of Elevator Constructors (IUEC), International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT), Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA), Operative Plasterers' and Cement Masons' International Association (OPCMIA), International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART), United Association (UA), United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers (Union Roofers), International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE), International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers (Boilermakers), International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers (Insulators), International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers (IW) and The Canadian Building Trades Unions (CBTU)NABTU Affiliates NABTU, n.d, retrieved 20 May 2017
NABTU has labor–management committees with workers in the biopharmaceutical industry, the oil and natural gas industries and the US chemical industry.Working with industry NABTU, n.d, retrieved 20 May 2017
Organization The federation is organized in state, provincial and local councils. , its funding consisted of an initiation fee, a per capita tax of 70 cents per member per month, an annual levy, agreements negotiated, sale of supplies and assessments.
Sean McGarvey has been President and Brent Brooker Secretary-Treasurer of the NABTU.
NABTU represents over 3 million skilled craft professionals in the United States and Canada.
Purpose The NABTU was founded as a way to overcome the jurisdictional conflicts occurring in the building and construction trade unions. It was largely unsuccessful in this task; conflict ended only after the Taft–Hartley Act largely outlawed jurisdictional strikes.Palladino, Grace. Skilled Hands, Strong Spirits: A Century of Building Trades History. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2005.
The NABTU coordinates the activity of building and construction trade unions belonging to the AFL–CIO by establishing jurisdictional rules, coordinating how work is assigned at construction sites, mediating jurisdictional and work assignment disputes, and coordinating interaction between the AFL–CIO's construction unions and employers. It also coordinates the efforts of local unions in the building trades, including contract negotiations with employer organizations and apprenticeship and training programs.
The NABTU also conducts research into construction workplace health and safety issues. It lobbies the United States Congress and executive branch agencies (such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) on health, safety, wages (e.g., the Davis–Bacon Act of 1931), and other legislative and regulatory issues. The organization also helps its affiliate unions establish, coordinate and uphold minimum educational standards for apprenticeship and journeyman training programs.
The NABTU´s purpose is described in 13 sections as coordination, organization and formation of local councils, apprenticeship training, health and safety practices, dispute resolution and jurisdiction, engagement with industry, negotiations of wage and working conditions, legislative activity, research and public communications helping members to become elected officials.
Councils The federation is organized through state, provincial, and local councils.
Affiliated Construction Trades of Ohio (ACT Ohio) Affiliated Construction Trades of Ohio (ACT Ohio) is a nonprofit advocacy group that represents unionized construction workers across the state.
Political positions NABTU criticized President Obama's 2015 initiative of a tax-funded apprenticeship program, saying it was already doing its own.
In April 2016, NABTU and the presidents of eight building trade unions called on the AFL–CIO to cut its ties with environmentalist Tom Steyer, who founded NextGen America Climate Action, a super PAC to "prevent climate disaster and transition to clean energies", opposing fossil fuel pipelines.
In April 2017, NABTU President McGarvey applauded Donald Trump's plans for the Keystone Pipeline and other infrastructure projects, when Trump spoke at NABTU's 2017 legislative convention.
NABTU offered a $200,000 reward for information about the hanging of a rope noose at the Y-12 Uranium Processing Facility construction site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Nooses on construction sites had become common after the police murder of George Floyd in May 2020, with more than 20 nooses and other racist incidents on jobsites that year alone.
In April 2024, the NABTU endorsed Joe Biden for president of the United States. NABTU President McGarvey appeared in a video criticizing Donald Trump for failing to deliver on promises related to pensions and infrastructure projects and praising Joe Biden for "fixing our pension funds", "delivering" on promises with "monumental legislation" on infrastructure and "writing the rules so the rules work for working people".
Leadership Presidents 1908: James Kirby 1910: James A. Short 1913: John Donlin 1924: George F. Hendrick 1926: William J. McSorley 1930: Michael McDonough 1936: J. W. Williams 1937: Joseph McInerney 1939: John Coyne 1946: Richard J. Gray 1960: C. J. Haggerty 1971: Frank Bonadio 1974: Robert Georgine 2000: Ed Sullivan 2008: Mark Ayers 2012: Sean McGarvey
Secretary-Treasurers 1908: William J. Spencer 1924: William J. Tracy 1927: William J. Spencer 1934: Herbert Rivers 1951: Joseph D. Keenan 1954: Frank Bonadio 1971: Robert Georgine 1974: Joseph F. Maloney 1995: Paschal McGuinness 2000: Joseph Maloney 2005: Sean McGarvey 2012: Brent Booker 2022: Brandon Bishop
See also List of construction trades Construction worker Civil engineering Index of construction articles Outline of construction
References
Archives Building & Construction Trades Council (Seattle, Wash.) records. 1959-1974. 4 cubic ft. (4 boxes). At the Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections. Further reading
Christie, Robert A. Empire in wood; a history of the carpenters' union (Cornell University,1956.)
Fine, Sidney. Without blare of trumpets: Walter Drew, the National Erectors Association, and the open shop movement, 1903-57 (University of Michigan Press, 1995) Galenson, Walter. The United Brotherhood of Carpenters: the first hundred years (Harvard University Press, 1983). Haber, William. Industrial relations in the building industry (Harvard University Press, 1930). Kazin, Michael. Barons of labor: the San Francisco building trades and union power in the Progressive Era (University of Illinois Press, 1987).
Mangum, Garth L. The Operating Engineers: the economic history of a trade union (Harvard University Press, 1964). Mercey, Arch A. The laborers' story, 1903-1953 : the first fifty years of the International Hod Carriers', Building and Common Laborers' Union of America (AFL) (Ransdell, 1954). Mulcaire, Michael Aloysius. The International brotherhood of electrical workers; a study in trade union structure and functions (1923). Palladino, Grace. Dreams of dignity, workers of vision : a history of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW, 1991). Palladino, Grace. Skilled hands, strong spirits: a century of building trades history (Cornell University Press, 2005). Segal, Martin. The rise of the United Association: national unionism in the pipe trades, 1884-1924 (Harvard University Press, 1970).
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