Calif. labor council elects IVP Baca secretary-treasurer

IVP J. Tom Baca

Organization represents 350,000 skilled construction workers

DELEGATES TO THE State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, AFL-CIO, unanimously elected Boilermakers IVP J. Tom Baca to a four-year term as secretary-treasurer Oct. 20 during the council’s quadrennial convention in Santa Monica.

Baca joined the SBCTC Executive Board as the Boilermakers Northern California representative in 2005. He succeeds Jim Kellogg, who had served as SBCTC secretary-treasurer since 2008, and will work closely with newly-elected President Robbie Hunter.

SBCTC is the umbrella organization of 160 unions representing 350,000 skilled construction workers. Its primary mission is to improve the health, safety, and economic conditions of its affiliates’ members and of all working men and women in the construction industry.

Baca has served as the Boilermakers International Vice President for the Western States Section since Dec. 2006, with responsibility for Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and the Islands of the Pacific.

Previously, he was the Business Manager/Secretary-Treasurer for Boilermakers Local 549 (Pittsburg, Calif.). He began his Construction Boilermaker career in 1969 and is a third-generation Boilermaker.

Baca is a past president of the Contra Costa Building and Construction Trades Council and a past executive board member for the Contra Costa County NAACP chapter. He is a founding member of California Unions for Reliable Energy (CURE) and a charter member of the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance. He is also a founding member of Shoot for A Cure, a nonprofit organization that raises money for leukemia and multiple sclerosis research.

Baca chairs the Boilermaker Western States Negotiating Committee and co-chairs the Boilermaker Western States Joint Apprenticeship Council. He also serves on the California Foundation on the Environment and the Economy (CFEE) and several other boards as either an executive member or trustee.