The Association of Union Constructors (TAUC) each year accepts nominations for the James J. Willis Craftperson of the Year Award, which honors outstanding labor-management cooperation and quality craftsmanship in the construction industry. The award is sponsored by TAUC Legacy Partner Milwaukee Tool and presented at TAUC’s Construction Leadership Conference. 

Nominees must be building trades members who have a gift for recognizing the vision of a project and can bring that vision — from blueprint to building — to fruition in a professional manner. Nominations are open to all crafts, on all projects completed in the calendar year of the award, worked under any type of building trades collective bargaining agreement. Apprentices, journeymen, foremen and general foremen are eligible for nomination.

TAUC encourages all association members to submit nominations for this prestigious award. Winners will receive significant publicity in the association’s podcast, The Construction User 2.0, the association’s Web site (www.tauc.org) and other national construction industry periodicals. Contractors must be paid Leadership Conference registrants for any winning craftpersons to be recognized at the awards ceremony.

The James J. Willis Craftperson of the Year Award was created in 1989 and was originally known as the Craftsman of the Year Award. TAUC changed the name in December 2008 to memorialize James J. Willis, Sr. He was a dear friend and supporter of TAUC and an authentic leader within the construction industry for more than five decades. Prior to his retirement as first vice president of the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers, Willis was president of the National Maintenance Agreements Policy Committee, Inc. and co-chairman of the NMAPC Labor-Management Committee.