Headline News

AFTER A NINE-MONTH organizing campaign, 36 workers at Aggregate Industries in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, voted June 27 to join the Boilermakers union. The National Labor Relations Board certified the election results on July 9, and a negotiating committee is working on their first contract.

FROM INSPIRING STORIES about Boilermakers winning more work in shipyards to negotiating contracts that add back benefits corporations wrenched away from members, Industrial Sector Operations lodge leaders were inspired and equipped at the ISO Conference July 9-11 in Las Vegas.

Fossil fuels, safety, manpower among key topics

OWNERS AND CONTRACTORS joined the Boilermakers July 22-25 in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, to discuss industry challenges at the annual Western States Tripartite Conference. It was the 15th meeting of the group, which draws owners of refineries, power plants and other heavy industrial facilities, construction and maintenance contractors, and leaders from the Boilermakers International and local lodges.

BOILERMAKERS CHAMPIONED CARBON Capture, Use and Storage (CCUS) technology at two key energy and climate events in Saskatchewan and British Columbia in May. The Boilermakers union partnered with Saskatchewan Building Trades to host a town hall on CCUS in Estevan, Saskatchewan, and participated in a panel discussion with the International CCS Knowledge Centre during the global CEM10/MI-4 conference in Vancouver.

THE UNION SPORTSMEN’S Alliance honored Bank of Labor with the Diamond Life Corporate Achievement Award this past June. The award is presented to USA’s industry partners that have surpassed the $1 million mark in supporting the organization’s mission.

IN AN OVERWHELMING 419-6 vote, House Republicans joined Democrats to repeal the “Cadillac tax”—a proposed tax on high-cost employer health insurance. If it is not repealed, The Health Care Excise Tax is set to go into effect in 2022 and would levy a 40-percent tax on the cost of employer-based health insurance that exceeds a certain level.

BUILDING ON DISCUSSIONS begun during the first-ever California Refinery Tripartite conference in 2018, more than 125 refiners, contractors and Boilermakers convened 26 in Napa for the 2019 California Refinery Tripartite meeting.

THE BOILERMAKERS COMMUNICATIONS department and partners Wide Awake Films and Creative Marketing Programs, Kansas City, have won two industry awards for campaign materials supporting an end to last year’s 90-day Local D239 lockout in Three Forks, Montana.

IR Channon speaks out on carbon capture, use and storage

THE BOILERMAKERS UNION took part in an international conference titled “Accelerating CCUS Globally,” held in Edinburgh, Scotland, November 28-29. International Rep Cory Channon represented the union during a panel discussion alongside global experts in energy and the environment. International Rep Richard MacIntosh also attended the event.

BM-ST OF LOCAL 13 (Philadelphia) Martin Williams and IR Erica Stewart have both been appointed to new roles that will further catalyze the M.O.R.E. Work Investment Fund on the state and national levels. Williams has been appointed to serve as the National Coordinator of State Legislative Affairs for the M.O.R.E. Work Investment Fund, and Stewart has been appointed to serve as the National Coordinator of Women in the Trades Initiatives for the M.O.R.E. Work Investment Fund.