Now more than ever, keeping union carpenters at work means helping union contractors win the work. Our goal is to employ proven strategies that help signatories to identify, compete for, and win contracts.
On a typical union jobsite, UBC support begins long before the first carpenter hits the gate.
In each of our regions, business representatives and other field staff closely monitor jobs in progress and projects barely on the horizon. They attend public hearings, zoning and permitting sessions, and regulatory clearance meetings. They secure commitments to include signatory contractors on bid lists. They will help contractors strategize to meet financing.
Our people know the industry and they know the players—town by town, county by county—and when we need to, our members will attend those hearings to show officials their constituents have a stake in the process.
In short, we make sure that union contractors are aware of every opportunity. We help them to turn those opportunities into winning bids, and that means more hours for more of our members.
Today, the UBC comprises some three dozen regional councils, which function as the administrative units for about 800 local unions. Regional councils represent areas based on real-world construction markets, helping UBC signatories with market wide reach and a consistent source for labor and information.
Relationships are key commodities in our regional councils. Council staff create trusted relationships with members of the local, state, and regional construction industry. Working collaboratively ensures more winning bids with contracts or project labor agreements tailored to the jobsite. This work is creating added union market share and increased respect in every one of our industry's geographic and market sectors.
Our regional councils also sometimes join in multi-council efforts to generate and extend positive relationships and partnerships with major contractors, developers, and end-users.