NABTU places renewed focus on bringing more diversity to the trades

Dorsey Hager, Executive Secretary-Treasurer for the Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to talk about the North American Building Trades Union Legislative Conference, getting more people into the trades and an update on the status of the Intel project. 

After attending his 20th NABTU Legislative Conference, Hager looked back on the different feelings he experienced after this year’s event. Hager gave a recap of President Joe Biden’s speech to the delegates from building trades unions across the country. There was a lot of discussion around the work generated by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. Hager said the future of work for the building trades is promising, and the information the delegates received from the conference has many union leaders excited.

With several discussions focused on the future of the trades, Hager also discussed the TradesFuture program from NABTU. This program works with local programs like Driving Futures and Building Futures in Columbus to bring more people into the trades. Hager talked about the focus on bringing more diversity into the trades. There needs to be a widening of the net cast by unions, and a commitment to spend time in underserved communities to help them find the path to the middle class.

Based on the most recent monthly report from the Intel project, there are now 1,053 craft workers on site. Bechtel, who is managing the project, hopes to have 2,500 workers on site by the end of the year. With all the additional pieces to the Intel Project there could be as many as 10,000 workers on site, not including the workers handling the infrastructure work around the project, Hager said. This project has been one of the more amazing examples of what can be accomplished through union work, he added.

Listen to the episode above to hear more from Hager.