NEW WORK AND POTENTIAL NEW MEMBERS ON THE HORIZON

It’s hard to believe that the holidays are already upon us, but it’s been a great and exciting year for DC 35! Anyone who knows me knows that I love this Union, so it was an honor to be nominated and unanimously elected to the position of President of District Council 35. When I started in this Union, I was just grateful to have the opportunity to give my family the benefits that go along with being a Union home. Never did I think that I would have the privilege of serving my brothers and sisters as a Business Representative, let alone as the President of the District Council. I’m humbled and honored by the trust placed in me by this membership and I promise to always pay this responsibility the respect that it is due.

DC 35 is fighting back! I’m happy to announce that we have signed a new interior office furniture company! For those who don’t know, DC 35 Glaziers have been fighting a jurisdictional battle over floor-to-ceiling interior glass that has been fraudulently labeled “demountable office furniture” in an attempt to undermine trade jurisdiction and exploit tax loopholes for developers. A byproduct of this perversion of the tax code has been that this work has gone almost exclusively to the carpenters. Well, we have a long-term plan to reclaim this work and the first step was signing Beacon Office Installations. The immediate result was that we were able to get our members on this work, but in the long term, we hope to empower our other signatory contractors to take this work back and show the non-signatory contractors who usually win this work that we are the right trade for the job.

We have kicked off a bottom-up organizing campaign at the University of New Hampshire! I was contacted by a mutual friend of a member of the housekeeping division at UNH about forming a Union. Early on it became obvious that these hard-working men and women were highly motivated and very serious about Organizing. I must be selective about the information I share while we are in the middle of the campaign, but I can tell you that so far it looks promising, and DC 35 is committed to seeing this through to a successful contract. If successful, this will add new members to our ranks strengthening our Union.

As some of you know, I also sit on the North American Contractor Certification (NACC) National Committee. This committee brings together Business Representatives from District Councils across North America. We meet to discuss all upcoming North American Contractor Certification/Architectural Glass and Metal Technician (AGMT) projects in our respective areas. Since I have been on this board, more and more NACC projects have been popping up in our area. In the past few months alone there have been four projects reported in our area. This is a trend that is coming our way! Our goal for 2024 is to continue to educate our contractors and members on the importance of getting NACC/AGMT certified.

This year I attended a four-week Leadership series training in Hanover, Maryland. Topics included: advanced computer skills, Bottom-Up and Top-Down Organizing, Servicing, Contracts, Internal Organizing, and Marketing your District Council. This was a great opportunity to network with Organizers and Business Representatives from all over the US and Canada and to see how the District Councils across the country are run.

Last but certainly not least I’m proud to announce as President of Local 1044 the creation of the Glazier Assistance Program! After the financial officer training facilitated by our International, it came to our attention that we needed a better way to offer financial assistance to members in need. After researching our options, Local 1044 has created a 501c3 charity fund known as the G.A.P. (Glazier Assistance Program). This is a self-managed charity with rank and file as well as E-Board members from Local 1044 sitting on the board. Like all funds, it will start small, and we plan on building it through donations from the local membership and charitable events. This gives us an avenue to help members in need without exposing our local to any liabilities. We are still discovering all the great ways that this will help our membership and look forward to hearing some ideas from members!