The Buffalo Building Trades are proud to be taking part in the upcoming Construction Career Days. It is being held

Wednesday, October 3rd and Thursday, October 4th, 2012

at the Operating Engineers Training Center located at

5959 Versailles Road, Lakeview, NY 14085.

Sharing opportunities in the construction industry with area high school students.

For more information please visit their website at http://www.constructioncareerdays.org/.

NOW IS THE TIME FOR WORKING MEN AND WOMEN TO TAKE BACK ERIE COUNTY!!!

Please get out and VOTE!

Make a difference and VOTE!

The time has come again for the men and women of the Buffalo Building Trades to make our voices heard on behalf of all of the working people in WNY.  This November we have the opportunity to change Local Politics from a county that cares more about the bottom line than it does about the people living here.

Time and again we have shown that by working hard and by working together we can overcome obstacles and elect candidates who are willing to support workers and jobs which mean they support our local economy.

Mark Poloncarz is another candidate who will fight for all workers in Erie County.

Since 2008, Chris Collins (not a career politician) has attacked workers, Community groups, Faith Based groups, Cultural organizations, County Legislators and any other entity who attempts to maintain quality of life for everyone in the County.

Now more than ever we need to send a message throughout the county that

 WE CAN DO BETTER THAN THE BOTTOM LINE

 Please join together and help with the upcoming election and support the following endorsed candidates.

Erie County Offices

Erie County Executive

Mark Polancarz

Erie County Clerk

Maria Whyte

Erie County Legislature

  Betty Jean Grant

Lynn Marinelli

Erie County Family Court Judge

Sharon LoVallo

N.Y. State Office

Remember local politics matters.  We saw what happened in Wisconsin and we need to be diligent in protecting workers rights in lieu of the bottom line.

Congratulations Congresswoman Kathy Hochul!

We must never lose site of the real issue.  We may understand costs associated with contracts and the burden placed upon taxpayers, but neither of those issues can be resolved by removing the right to collectively bargain.

Over time the following facts on unions in America have proven to be instrumental in maintaining the middle class for all workers.

Union Facts

• Because they bargain collectively, union members earn 27% more than their non-union counterparts.

• A vast majority of union members are able to enjoy employer paid health care for themselves and their families. A small fraction of their non-union counterparts enjoy anything even close to the same coverage.

• Unions help local communities by generating more revenue for workers and that contributes to better schools, public works and other community programs.

• Earlier union members fought for many of the benefits we now take for granted. The eight-hour day, overtime pay, health care coverage, social security, occupational safety laws, workers’ compensation, minimum wage, retirement security, local living wage laws and unemployment insurance were unheard of until the advent and continuing efforts of the labor movement.

• During the American civil rights movement, union members stood side by side with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who was killed while he was supporting a Tennessee sanitation workers’ strike.

• Unions have been a strong advocate of the working family. Thanks to unions, workers have had the option of working stable hours-allowing them time to provide for family stability.

• Unions have been at the forefront of medical and family leave efforts that allow parents to stay home with their children or care for an elder.

• Today, the labor movement serves as a powerful voice for working families in the global economy.

• Unions are fighting outsourcing and the exploitation of cheap labor overseas while curbing abuses of part time and temporary labor here at home.

• The labor movement is also working to stop corporate attacks on the 40-hour work week and paid overtime while defending Social Security, Medicare and protecting the rights of patients against the abuses of managed care programs.

I hope you can see the current media assault on workers for what it is and ask that you tell your elected officials that you support workers rights and the right to bargain collectively.

Anti-union sentiment is nothing new in the U.S.   The union brand has been severely damaged over the past several decades; in some cases unfairly and in others self inflicted.  An even greater challenge now threatens the perception and viability of trade unions, for it is more than likely they are about to be swept up in a controversy not of their making and one they are unable to influence.

Public sector union members in the U.S. have had a hell of a ride.  City, county, state and federal employees have been the benefactors of unmatched generosity granted to them by politicians who used their short term political support to shore up their spines of jelly.  The escalating benefits schedules granted many of these union employees is exploding financially into unsustainable burdens on these governments; and by extension, the taxpayers supporting them. The underfunding of these benefit plans has not even begun to be addressed and yet the newspapers are already full of bile and outrage.  We are not talking about Tea Party people here – John Q. Public is pissed.  Within five more years, the underfunding of benefits for teachers, state workers, city workers, public safety, transit and many other unions will cause a huge and highly visible financial crisis of benefit costs vs. resources.

All unions (involved or not) are going to get the blame for it.

The identity and brand of private sector unions must be different than public sector unions.  The problem is that everyone lumps all unions into one bucket – despite the significant differences between the two.  Within a relatively short time period, unions will be assailed for some of the largest public tax obligations ever seen, and the question is – what will the result be?  The potential is more anti-union rhetoric, damage to union political and public influence, less attractiveness for unions, for employers, for workers and more.

Private sector unions like the construction trades have been working hard for at least ten years to emphasize their economic value and competitive relevancy.  Will the tide of business and public opinion sweep away these efforts when the bill comes due for the Baby Boomer public sector pensions and benefits?  Trade unions like construction had better start thinking about whether they still align with these other public sector unions.
Finally, trade union leaders had better have a strong presentation as well on why things like prevailing wages, PLAs and other cost stabilizing strategies should not be seen as “more entitlements for those damn union guys”.  If you get lumped in with the least popular among labor, you better have a way to differentiate yourself or you are going to get the same treatment – whether you deserve it or not.

— Mark Breslin
 

The Buffalo Building Trades is proud to announce a new way of conducting business for 2010.  Too often, misunderstandings take place as a result of insufficient information.   After extensive research on this  issue, we have decided that the most positive course of action to help dispel the rumors and innuendos associated with organized workers is to attempt to clarify who we are and what we stand for.

Let us begin by stating that the Buffalo Building Trade Unions are a group of working men and women who earn their living in the construction industry here in Western New York.  Day in and day out, we report to jobsites in the area and perform the necessary tasks associated with our trades, in an honest effort to construct the best buildings possible in the most efficient method available.

Our wages and benefits are a matter of public record so as to insure the highest level of transparency to those government agencies that choose to do business with us.  Together with our socially responsible contractors we operate on the core principle of a “honest day’s work for a honest day’s wage” and as a result we have been a true positive economic force on the Western New York construction industry.  To help people understand the real importance of the

It is our hope that after a review of the facts, people will have a better understanding of our issues and why they are important to us, as well as the community.   The following topics are issues which are constantly presented in the media anytime someone attempts to discredit who we are and what we are about.

All of these topics are often referred to as the agenda of the “powerful special interest groups” or Organized Labor.  Well as stated earlier, we are just working men and women of Western New York and our goal is to improve the quality of life for ALL working men and women.

This is truly our “SPECIAL  INTEREST”

Buffalo Building Trades, we have prepared an ECONOMIC  IMPACT  STUDY  for your review.
Download the Economic Impact Study

Visit the UB 2020 Website