Affiliated members of the Cleveland Building and Construction Trades are volunteering their time and talent to help turn an abandoned home into a safe and supportive housing option for pregnant women. Located on Cleveland’s west side, the home is owned by Sisters Haven, a nonprofit organization that provides safe housing and loving communities to pregnant women and new mothers. Once work is complete, up to seven pregnant women will live there until their child is approximately nine months old.
BEW Local 38 was the big winner at the 41st Annual Cleveland Building Trades Softball Tournament, with teams from the Local taking home the titles in both the A and B divisions. The two-day, double-elimination tournament at James Day Park began on Aug. 31 and stretched past midnight the following evening.
Read MoreWhen a non-profit drug and alcohol rehab center needed a new compressor for the chiller at one of their properties, members of Pipefitters Local 120 and the Mechanical Contractors Association of Cleveland stepped up to help. The Ed Keating Center operates three non-profit sober living facilities for recovering alcoholic, and drug-addicted, men and women. The organization takes in individuals struggling with addiction at no cost to the individual or their health insurance.
Read MoreThe Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council (CBCTC) voted to oppose amending Cleveland’s City Charter to create participatory budgeting. The charter issue will appear on the November 7 ballot. "...the reality is participatory budgeting is a gimmick that presents a very real danger to a city budget that is already cut to the bone. Further cuts could do irreparable damage to City services and public safety,” said David Wondolowski, Executive Secretary and Business Manager for the CBCTC.
Read MoreThe best of the best in the Northeast Ohio construction industry were honored during the fifth annual Excellence and Craftsmanship Awards, held on Aug. 17, 2023. About 500 individuals, including Cleveland area tradesmen and tradeswomen, were in to see over 100 of their Brothers and Sisters recognized for their work on projects completed in 2022.
Read MoreCleveland leaders gathered on the steps of City Hall on June 27 to talk about the Community Benefits Ordinance recently passed by the City Council. Ordinance 297-2023 was passed on June 5. It is designed to encourage developers to use Cleveland-based, minority-owned and women-owned businesses for construction projects in exchange for incentives. The new ordinance will also create job opportunities for members of the building trades and provide a pathway for more Cleveland residents to join the trades. “I worked closely with the city on this, so I’m very pleased it passed,” said Dave Wondolowski, Executive Secretary and Business Manager of the Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council.
Read MoreActing Labor Secretary Julie Su strongly pushed workers’ rights enforcement to a Republican-controlled House committee that at times challenged her plan. Her testimony before the House Education and the Workforce Committee on June 7 was intended to be a discussion of the Department of Labor budget for fiscal 2024, which begins Oct. 1, but it also gave insight into how Su will lead the Labor Department.
Read MoreThe following article was an op-ed piece by Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council Executive Secretary/Business Manager Dave Wondolowski. It was was first published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer and Cleveland.com on May 21.. Wondolowski provided The Labor Citizen with a copy to publish in order to educate Cleveland-area building trades members about the Greater Cleveland Partnership and its preference for using out-of-state, low-wage construction workers on projects instead of promoting the use of Community Benefit Agreements.
Read MoreOhio State Building and Construction Trades Council Secretary-Treasurer Mike Knisley and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) were among the speakers at the annual OSBCTC Delegates Breakfast held during the 2023 North America's Building Trades Unions Legislative Conference.
Read MoreHolding a copy of this year’s AFL-CIO Deaths On the Job Report, an angry federation President Liz Shuler had a blunt message for the nation’s employers. “This report should not have to exist …These pages should be blank,” she said. Shuler joined a large crowd in the U.S. Labor Department’s main auditorium to honor the 5,190 workers killed on the job in 2021, the latest federal data available, which is what the AFL-CIO uses for its annual report
Read MorePresident Joe Biden was the featured speaker at the 2023 North America's Building Trades Unions Legislative Conference held in Washington, D.C. Biden addressed roughly 3,000 union construction delegates hours after officially announcing the start of his re-election campaign and received raucous cheers as he discussed the many ways his administration has helped organized labor, specifically the building trades.
Read MoreLaborers’ International Union of North American (LIUNA) General President Terry O’Sullivan announced his plan to retire effective April 30, after leading the union for almost
24 years.
“There has been no higher honor or privilege than to represent, defend and fight for the strong, proud and united men and women of LIUNA,” O’Sullivan said. “Each and every day I have served as General President, I have been awed by the power of this union.”
Read MoreUnion leaders, signatory contractors and community leaders gathered on March 14 to celebrate the dedication of a Habitat for Humanity home built only by union construction workers and contractors.
Read MoreWomen in Construction Week was celebrated in Greater Cleveland for the first time with a dinner at the IBEW Local 8 Union Hall. Nearly 60 tradeswomen attended the event, which was supported by the Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council.
Read MoreUnion leaders hailed President Joe Biden’s nomination of Deputy Labor Secretary Julie Su to succeed Marty Walsh, in the U.S. Labor Department’s top job.
Read MoreThe strongest and loudest supporter of union construction, U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, announced his intention to step down from his current position in mid-March. Walsh, 55, the former Mayor of Boston and Massachusetts state representative, will become the first traditional Cabinet secretary to leave since President Joe Biden took office. The former leader of the Greater Boston Building Trades Unions and a card-carrying member of Laborers Local 223 is returning to organized labor via professional sports.
Read MoreCleveland City Council will soon vote to allocate $10 million from its American Rescue Plan Act funding to help bolster the region’s construction workforce. According to a presentation made at Council’s Workforce, Education, Training and Youth Development Committee held on Jan. 24, the funds will be used for work development purposes in the following manner:
Read MoreThe Cleveland Guardians released details of their upcoming renovation project to reimagine their nearly 30-year-old ballpark. Renovation work on Progressive Field, the 11th-oldest ballpark in Major League Baseball, will begin upon the conclusion of the 2023 season and be performed by affiliated members of the Cleveland Building Trades under a Project Labor Agreement and a Community Benefits Agreement.
Read MoreThis is shaping up to be not just a big year for Ohio’s union construction industry, but a mega-year. Keyed by several mega projects, including the $20 billion Phase I of the Intel project in New Albany and the $3.5 billion Honda/LG joint venture battery plant in Jeffersonville, 2023 is forecast to be a record year for a number of Local Unions and regional building trades councils in terms of man-hours.
Read MoreElevator constructors who work in the State of Ohio will soon be required to obtain an industry license in order to ply their trade. On Jan. 2, Ohio Gov. Mike De-Wine signed House Bill 107, which mandated the licensure of elevator mechanics. The new law will affect the men and women who build, install or service commercial and industrial elevators, escalators and moving walks. The law will not pertain to those who install, maintain and repair residential conveyance systems such as wheelchair lifts and stair climbers.
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