Date: 2005
Location: Calgary
Profile: Brad Bulloch completed a four-year carpenter apprenticeship in 1980 before building a career first as a carpenter and later as a staff member for the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners (UBC). He served as business agent for UBC Local 2013 from 1987 onwards and focused on safety issues in carpenter training and union negotiations with management. Bulloch joined an organizing drive for UBC shortly after he began apprenticing and maintained his union activism afterwards. Unions in the trades faced devastation in 1984 when the Lougheed government accepted construction companies’ argument that they must destroy unions to respond to the global recession that began in 1982. They were allowed to lock out tradespersons for 24 hours and then transfer all their work to non-union off-shoots of their company. Offered much reduced wages and benefits, many construction workers faced economic devastation. Bulloch led a non-union strike in 1987 against horrendous safety violations. Safety became his priority when he joined UBC staff. As an organizer, Bulloch encountered workers who faced illegal threats and bullying from anti-union employers. Most employers joined the anti-union Merit Contractors and several recognized the Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC), which extols employer domination to avoid worker-organized unions.
Keywords: Apprenticeship; Business agent; Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC); Employer intimidation of workers considering unionization; Local 2013, UBC; Peter Lougheed government; Merit Contractors; Twenty-four hour lockout; Union organizing.
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See also: Occupational Health and Safety in Alberta; United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners