New Building Trades President Takes Office:

October 2 2007

TAUC News

_{by Tom Owens
Director of Marketing & Communications
Building & Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO
202-756-4623
towens@bctd.org}

WASHINGTON, DC – Mark Ayers, former Director of the Construction & Maintenance Division of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), assumed the office of President of the Building & Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO (BCTD) on Monday, October 1, 2007. Ayers, who was elected unanimously on September 6th by the BCTD Governing Board, succeeds retiring BCTD President Edward C. Sullivan.

“I am honored and excited to have been given this important responsibility,” Ayers said, “especially given that 2008 represents the 100th anniversary of the Building & Construction Trades Department.”

In a “President’s Message” posted Monday on the BCTD website (www.bctd.org), Ayers has promised to aggressively work with the department’s 12 affiliated unions to help re-claim a relevant market position for the union construction industry.

Specifically, he indicated that he will set out to work with the BCTD Governing Board, BCTD Secretary-Treasurer Sean McGarvey, and the Department’s state and local councils across the US and Canada to examine and evaluate all structures, programs, and operations to ensure that they are measured against tangible, value-driven results relating to the Department’s inter-connected goals of increasing membership and market share.

Ayers also expressed his desire to continue negotiations with the Laborers International Union, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and the International Union of Operating Engineers in the hopes of bringing all the building trades unions back within one organization. “We are on the threshold of extraordinary opportunity for our industry,” explained Ayers, “and that is all the more reason for us not to give up hope on finding solutions that will restore harmony among the trades.”

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_{The Building & Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO is an alliance of craft unions representing approximately three million members. Its unions are widely known as the best choice for highly skilled and highly productive construction labor. The Department and its affiliated member unions demonstrate a concerted commitment to world class skills development and training; coupled with a 21st century labor/management model that is founded upon the principles of performance, pride, cooperation and partnership.}