President 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 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 MoreThe Cleveland Tradeswoman Committee recently donated items and money to a local charitable organization.
The group, Shoes and Clothes for Kids (SC4K), held a sock drive from Nov. 21 through Dec. 9, and the Tradeswomen decided to help them out this year. “We liked it because the items stay local and help children in need,” said Cleveland Tradeswoman Chairwoman Doreen Cannon.
In honor of National Apprenticeship Week, Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb visited the Laborers’ Local 310 training center in Cleveland. Bibb, who began his first term as the 58th Mayor of Cleveland in January, spoke to apprentices outside of Local 310’s training center on Nov. 15, and then listened to their stories on why they became apprentices.
Read MoreThe Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council secured a Project Labor Agreement with Sherwin-Williams to build its new downtown headquarters and suburban research and development facility.
Dave Wondolowski, Executive Secretary for the Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council, said each project is expected to create about 1,800 jobs for affiliated members of the Cleveland Building Trades
Read MoreYears of hard work paid off for the Finishing Trades Institute of the Ohio Region [FTIOR], as the training group for the Painters Union gained accreditation from the Council on Occupational Education.
Viewed as a nationally honored seal of excellence for occupational education institutions, COE accreditation denotes honesty and integrity in the organizations.
According to its website, the COE is recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education as a reliable authority on the quality of education offered by the institutions it has accredited, which includes registered apprenticeship programs.
Educational programs or institutes who have been found to meet or exceed stated criteria of educational quality and student achievement are granted accreditation.
President Joe Biden stopped in Cleveland on July 7 to discuss the finalization of new pension relief rules, which will keep at-risk multi-employer pension funds solvent until at least 2051.
Read MoreThe Cleveland Clinic announced major construction projects in May set to take place on its main campus, with all work covered by Project Labor Agreements [PLA]. In his State of the Clinic address, Cleveland Clinic CEO and President Tom Mihaljevic, M.D., announced the Cleveland Clinic is investing in multiple capital projects, including the construction of new buildings and the renovation of several facilities in Ohio.
Read MoreThe AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust (HIT) will finance a Cleveland-area affordable housing project for senior citizens. HIT will provide approximately $6.6 million of the $12.6 million needed for the substantial rehabilitation of the Pinzone Towers Apartments project, located in Rocky River, a suburb west of Cleveland.
Read MoreUnited Association apprentices from across Ohio once again had the ability to show off their skillset and wage a friendly competition to identify the state’s top apprentices in the union pipe trades.
From April 18 to 22, the Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 94 Training Center in Canton welcomed 33 apprentices from across the state to demonstrate their training as either a pipefitter, plumber, sprinkler fitter, welder or HVAC service technician.
Affiliated members of the Cleveland Building Trades were on-hand April 18 for a groundbreaking ceremony to construct an all-union Habitat for Humanity house in Cleveland, funded in part by a donation from the Cleveland Building Trades Foundation. The $25,000 donation by the CBTF marks a significant investment in not only the project, but also the Greater Buckeye neighborhood, where the house will be built.
Read MoreA long-awaited project in downtown Cleveland will begin soon thanks to a major tax credit award from the State of Ohio, creating more work for area union trades.
On March 2, the Ohio Tax Credit Authority and the Ohio Department of Development awarded the Millennia Companies a $40 million Transformational Mixed-Use Development (TMUD) tax credit award for the rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of The Centennial. Located at 925 Euclid Ave., the building was formerly known as the Huntington Building and has been mostly vacant for over a decade.
A partnership between the City of Cleveland, Cleveland Clinic, Meijer, Fairfax Renaissance Development Corporation and Fairmount Properties will create 300 jobs for affiliated members of the Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council. A Dec. 14 groundbreaking ceremonially started the project to build a small grocery store and apartment complex in Cleveland’s Fairfax neighborhood. Located on the corner of East 105th Street and Cedar Avenue, Fairfax Market is part of the overall $500 million Cleveland Innovation District project.
Read MoreLaborers’ Local 310 officers welcomed Labor Secretary Marty Walsh to the Local 310 Union Hall. From left to right: Field Representative Sean Campbell, Business Manager Terry Joyce, Secretary of Labor Walsh, Secretary-Treasurer Thomas Byrne and Field Representative/President John Soeder.
Read MoreThe Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council officially endorsed the Cleveland Indians lease extension for Progressive Field on Aug. 26, including the corresponding stadium upgrade plan that would create jobs for building trades members. Earlier in the month, the Indians announced they reached a tentative deal with the city of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County and the state of Ohio to renovate the ballpark and extend the team’s lease in Cleveland for at least 15 years. The current lease expires in 2023. The new lease is expected to start in 2022. The county is slated to pay off bonds from the original construction in 2023, coinciding with the expiration of the current lease.
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