Back to the Home Page
The Insulation Industry International Apprentice and Training Fund (IIIATF) completed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) 502 training course in April at the Maritime Institute in Linthicum Heights, Md.
The Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council’s Apprenticeship Readiness Program, which was created by former Insulators Local 50 Business Manager Dorsey Hager, was honored with the Mark H. Ayers Community Achievement Award during the 2023 North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) Legislative Conference.
International leaders and HFIAW delegates were part of the standing-room-only crowd when President Joe Biden started his re-election campaign with an enthusiastic speech to close out the first day of the 2023 NABTU Legislative Conference.
During the last weekend of October, more than 3,000 tradeswomen and allies gathered at the Paris Casino in Las Vegas for North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) Tradeswomen Build Nations (TWBN) Conference. TWBN is the largest gathering of any kind for union tradeswomen, and the largest NABTU event, eclipsing the annual Legislative Conference.
The fall session of parliament kicked off at the end of September, and a busy legislative agenda has kept the federal government focused on tackling the rising cost of living, dealing with labour and supply challenges and moving forward with implementing its commitments on climate change and the environment.
In 1971, Walt Disney World opened in Florida, the voting age was lowered to age 18, the most popular song was “Joy to the World” by Three Dog Night and the movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory premiered. That same year, Terry Hermanson, age 17, started to work for the HFIAW.
Through education, advocacy, campaigning or at the polls, members of the Insulators Union made a political impact this year in both the U.S. and Canada. In the U.S., the efforts of our Brothers and Sisters to, ‘Get Out the Vote’ helped stem the tide on what was expected to be a “red wave” at the federal level and allow Democrats to keep control of the Senate and only narrowly lose a majority in the House.
Lee Loftus is a retired Local 118 Business Manager and a proud third-generation Insulator. A member of the HFIAW since 1976, Loftus worked his way up, eventually holding elected positions both with the Local and with the building trades on a city and province level. He was previously the British Columbia Federation of Labour Occupation Health, Safety and Environment Director and has been entrenched in occupational health and environmental issues his entire professional career.
When I raise the issue of banning the use of asbestos, the most common response I get is: “Isn’t asbestos already banned?”
In mid-May, over a dozen Local JATC Training Coordinators and Instructors attended the Advanced Pad Development and Advanced Metal Layout Train-the-Trainers courses at the Local 17 Training Center in Chicago.