The B.U.I.L.D. program — Building Union Initiative and Labor Dignity — was developed by NERCC to educate members about the construction industry and where we fit into it.
In a single evening session, members are presented with some basic facts and statistics about the local and national economy and historical changes that have impacted conditions in the construction industry.
Discussions involve how much building is done union and how union members, acting together, can help increase the level of union construction.
The B.U.I.L.D. program aims to improve conditions by encouraging members to participate in efforts to: • Build a better union • Build a better carpenter • Build better partnerships with employers • Build better communities • Build a better democracy
B.U.I.L..D sessions have been held in Local Unions throughout New England and for apprentices at the New England Carpenters Training Center. So far, more than 1,500 members have taken part.
The B.U.I.L.D. program is now also targeting active geographic areas. Cities and towns with upcoming development or important local elections are inviting all of their neighbor UBC members to B.U.I.L.D. classes as a way of developing multi-Local Volunteer Organizing Committees. It can’t just be about your Local Union or where you work, a successful union requires you to be active where you make your home and where you vote.
Construction may be slow, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t work for union carpenters. Call your local union or talk to members who live in your community about attending or scheduling a BUILD session. Learn what’s going on and how you can help make things better.
The New England Regional Council of Carpenters and several Local Union affiliates have scheduled sessions to present the B.U.I.L.D. program for members. B.U.I.L.D. is a new program developed by NERCC to give members information about the construction industry, the Carpenters Union's place within the industry and what we need to do to thrive in the future.
The following scheduled sessions may or may not have room for additional participants. If you are a member of one of the following Local Unions and would like to participate, please contact your Business Agent to see if room is still available and to find out the location and time of the session.
If your Local Union has not scheduled a session at this time, contact your Business Agent to express interest in attending a session.
March 10--Local 210 March 12--Local 624 March 31--Local 43 April 6--Local 24 April 7--Local 94 April 23--Local 624
More than fifty apprentices at the New England Carpenters Training Center became the latest members to participate in the B.U.I.L.D. program on Friday. The session was led by NERCC ES-T Mark Erlich, Organizing Director Brian Richardson, and Council Representative Vin Scalisi.
The program was slightly altered to account for the knowledge and experience apprentices have and general questions they had about the Council and how it operates.
Council staff will be presenting the BUILD program to apprentices in Millbury every Friday. BUILD has been held in a number of Local Unions within the Council since being rolled out a few months ago. It was developed by NERCC staff over the course of a year. To date, more than 180 members have participated in BUILD since it debuted in the fall.
Any members interested in participating in a BUILD session should contact their Business Agent.
The B.U.I.L.D. program was prominently featured at the Convention. B.U.I.L.D. is a brand new program developed by NERCC to give members information about the construction industry, the Carpenters Union's place within the industry and what we need to do to thrive in the future.
The most impoortant element in our future success is membership involvement. This video, "Union Town," features some members who have stepped up to the plate to help promote union carpenters and union contractors.
Change is constant. Even in the construction industry, where individual crafts workers as well as business owners will point to “the way we’ve always done things,” there is no doubt tremendous changes have come in waves.
So how does a union that has been operating within that industry for more than 130 years make sure it preserves its historical role while staying relevant at the same time? By taking advantage of its most valuable resource: union members.
B.U.I.L.D., short for Building Union Initiative and Labor Dignity, is a new program that’s about to be rolled out by the New England Regional Council of Carpenters to help members understand the changes in the construction industry. It will encourage rank-and-file members to play an active role in keeping the union relevant and capable of protecting the interests of carpenters.
Development of the program began last year when NERCC staff and Organizing Director Brian Richardson realized their was a gap between union members’desire to be involved and the union’s efforts to help them by providing information and avenues for action.
And where previous membership activation programs tried to educate rank-and-file members about the need for union members to organize, Richardson felt that message was already being sent and well received.
“We’ve run hundreds of COMET classes for thousands of members over the years and still do. It is an excellent program to introduce members to the importance of organizing. But a lot of our members now have come to the union through organizing drives and understand it well. What we need to do now is help keep ourselves up to date with what’s going on in the industry as a whole, beyond our jobsites and even beyond the boundaries of New England. Then we reinforce the organizing strategies and techniques that are a part of COMET training and all organizing efforts.”
Once Richardson decided to pull a group together to develop a new program, one of the first calls was to Jeff Grabelsky.
Grabelsky is one of the labor movement’s most valued resources when it comes to organizing and developing membership education programs. Not only has he been an organizer for more than thirty years--including a stint as national organizing director for the Building Trades Department of the AFL-CIO--he’s helped put together some of the mostsuccessful training programs for the UBC and IBEW.
Richardson said Grabelsky’s role wasn’t to develop the program for NERCC, but to help them focus the ideas that had already been discussed and organize them in a way that would make for an educational and dynamic presentation.
Grabelsky said he thinks the Council has a great way to tap into any union’s most valuable resource.
“Union members are the heart and soul of the building trades. The BUILD program is a great way to reach members, inspire and activate them, and revitalize unionized construction,” he said.
Staff from every state in New Eng land participated in the development of BUILD, which was being rolled out in pilot programs in the spring and should be available region-wide in the summer. Richardson and Grabelsky said the involvement of diverse perspectives help make the program something which will be effective wherever it is given.
“We had people from larger markets and smaller markets participate, we had business agents and organizers, people who had been on staff for years and staff members who just came out of the field.” said Richardson. “It was important that we developed a program that was honest and comprehensive, with no blind spots.”
So in some respects, union members might find that the more things change,the more they stay the same. Industry continues to throw challenges at carpentersand carpenters continue to develop tools to adapt and survive.
B.U.I.L.D. Building Union Initiative and Labor Dignity
Goals of the Program • Help membership understand trends, challenges, threats and opportunities of a changing construction industry. Show how they impact individuals in the industry. • Discuss how NERCC and members’ efforts have succeeded in the industry. • Agree on responses to current challenges and future uncertainty. • Emphasize importance of membership support and identify individual or group actions that can be taken.
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