Everyone should have the opportunity like I did—like you did—to be a union Boilermaker.
I grew up poor. I know what it’s like to have less than others, because as a child, I lived with want. I lived with the worry and the fear and the stress that cast their dark shadows over families who don’t know where the money will come from to feed their children.
It is no exaggeration to say the Boilermakers union changed my life and lifted my family out of poverty. Steady, union Boilermaker work provided for us, protected us, set me on my own solid career path as a young adult and, later, gave me the chance to provide for my own family.
Our union’s priority is to intensify our organizing and recruiting efforts—to give more hardworking people the opportunity at a better life through our Boilermakers union. For me, that is personal. Deeply personal. Everyone should have the opportunity like I did—like you did—to be a union Boilermaker. We need to make certain they have that right.
That’s what we’re doing, together. As a union, we are focused on organizing and recruiting to bring more people into the middle class. To make sure people have a voice on their jobsites. To make sure our future brothers and sisters work in safe environments and are treated fairly in their workplaces. To grow our union, build our strength and continuously improve who we are as Boilermakers today, tomorrow and into an infinite future.
As Boilermakers privileged to belong to this union, it is our obligation to bring in a minimum of two people: one to replace us when we retire into our well-deserved rest and another to help us grow our organization.
To be clear: This is not just about numbers. Our work in organizing and recruiting affects the struggling single mother who is the sole provider for her family—the mother who visited our booth at a career fair and learned about our trade; who we actively recruited and now has a career, financial stability and a good life as a Boilermaker.
It affects the father who, because of his job at a Boilermaker-represented shipyard, is able to pay for his children to become first-generation university graduates.
It affects the tens of thousands who, because of their Boilermaker-negotiated contracts and safety standards, come home safely every day from their jobs.
It affects you, me and all who have the honor to call ourselves Boilermakers.
It is incumbent upon us, and it is up to us, to help more hardworking Americans and Canadians into the middle class, into our union and to share in the benefits of a stronger, better International Brotherhood of Boilermakers. So together, shoulder to shoulder, that is what we will do.
