The International Brotherhood of Boilermakers is secure, it is prosperous and it is growing.
It is no secret that our union has been through some trying times. I don’t need to go further on what has transpired in our industries, our world and even within our own union over the past few years; we all lived through these things together.
The Boilermakers union is no stranger to challenges and change. Time and again in our history, when industry innovations have threatened to make our crafts obsolete, we too have innovated and risen to greet new opportunities and evolve.
Time and again in our history, when external or internal issues have shaken us, we have rolled up our sleeves, set differences aside, rallied, regrouped and refocused on what’s right and good for our union and the men and women we call brothers and sisters.
Time and again, we have come through these trials stronger; we have made difficult and necessary changes; and we have pressed forward, set forth on a better path.
That is where we find ourselves today.
The International Brotherhood of Boilermakers is secure, it is prosperous and it is growing. For the first time in many years, we have had successful organizing campaigns, with multiple campaigns currently in progress throughout the country. We are hiring recruiters nationwide to build our Boilermaker workforce. We are aggressively going after work we may have lost in the past—and in new industries where our craft belongs but has not yet been.
We have restructured our organization, and as a result, we are leaner, we are meaner and we are more financially sound than we have been in five years. We are working together and implementing better programs and better processes. We are innovating the way we promote our union and more nimbly seizing improvements and new problem-solving approaches. We are data driven.
And we have changed. We are focused on the people we are obligated to serve: the members. You. The Boilermakers who work 1,000 feet up on the top of a stack. The Boilermakers who, right now, are crawling through an economizer. The Boilermakers who got up before the sun this morning to mill talc or make cement. The Boilermakers who drive forklifts third shift in manufacturing warehouses, who get greasy repairing locomotives, who contort themselves into the tightest corners of the sweltering inner-bottoms to weld the keel of a U.S. Navy vessel. The Boilermakers who keep the U.S. and Canada going.
It bears repeating: We are working together, all of us—because the better we, as a union, work together, the better our union can serve the members we represent.
That is the state of our union today.
We have come a long way and we’re in good shape. I’m proud of where we are today and where we are going next. We cannot stagnate; we cannot—and we will not—stop. We must press forward.
