New President Takes Helm of National Building Trades
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| New BCTD President Mark Ayers, right, and IBEW President Ed Hill, left, joined IU President John J. Flynn at the International Apprentice Contest. |
IU President John J. Flynn joined fellow building trades’ general presidents on October 1st at the swearing in of Mark Ayers as President of the Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO (BCTD). Ayers, the former director of the Construction & Maintenance Division of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), will fulfill the unexpired term of retiring President Edward Sullivan.
In accepting his new position, Ayers made clear his intent to continue negotiations to bring the Laborers’ International Union and United Brotherhood of Carpenters back into the BCTD. “We are on the threshold of extraordinary opportunity for our industry and that is all the more reason for us not to give up hope on finding solutions that will restore harmony among our trades,” he said.
Several days before taking office, Ayers accepted Flynn’s invitation to stop by the fall Executive Council meeting, where Flynn introduced Ayers to Council members as “the right person at the right time” to confront the serious challenges facing building trades members and the industry.
That afternoon, Ayers visited the 2007 International Apprentice Contest, where he toured the new John J. Flynn BAC/IMI International Training Center.
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