Building trades paint a picture of a big future, with Philadelphia at the center

When leaders of Philadelphia’s building trades unions gathered Thursday, along with a squadron of local elected officials and the president of North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU), the fully packed room quickly took on the atmosphere of a victory party.

At the event, hosted by NABTU at the Laborers’ District Council Training Center in North Philadelphia, labor leaders and politicians spoke of a future in which a growing population of union tradespeople — one that’s more diverse than ever before — rides federal infrastructure investments and state-funded projects to a middle-class living, or better.

“When you look back 10 years from now, ... you’re going to see whole communities changed,” NABTU president Sean McGarvey said.

They did so with a clear sense of possibility, pointing to recent wins by union-backed candidates in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, where Democrats won the majority last fall, and the governor’s mansion. Another key part of the vision: Cherelle Parker becoming Philadelphia’s next mayor.

With her decisive win in the May primary, Parker is very likely to take that title, and building trades leaders are counting on it. They endorsed Parker in a crowded primary, in which polls offered no certainty as to who would be a fair bet. It was a big get for Parker, given the amount of political sway and spend the construction unions yield in local and statewide elections.

For Ryan Boyer, business manager of the city’s Building Trades Council since 2021, it was his first mayoral endorsement as leader of the 30-union coalition. His predecessor, John J. Dougherty, who resigned in 2021 after being convicted on federal bribery charges, had a history of getting broad backing from the rest of the unions after choosing whom to endorse, and it was unclear whether Boyer would get the same.

If the primary was a political test of sorts for Boyer, it seems he passed with flying colors.

With regard to Parker’s win, McGarvey said, “The first thing it says is Ryan Boyer and the other leaders of the Philadelphia Building Trades are engaged, pay attention, and are exceedingly politically smart.”

As he introduced Parker at Thursday’s event, Boyer reflected on the decision to back her in the primary, recalling that “the first time I met her was on the picket line.” He noted that the building trades leaders chose to endorse her out of a field of competitors that included multiple union-friendly options.

“We stood on principle, not on polls,” Boyer said, referring to the mayoral primary. “We stood with someone who stood with us.”

Parker, in her own remarks, said she “caught a lot of hell during this election season” for her close ties to the building trades, but said she’s “unapologetic.”

“When we started off on this journey, the powers that be in Philadelphia, they told us that it was impossible to do. I was not from the right zip code. I was not born into wealth,” Parker said.

Noting that she still has to win a general election in November before she becomes mayor-elect, Parker said she’s “looking forward to closing the hope deficit,” drawing a line from the city’s gun violence crisis to union employment.

“When we give access to training and the opportunity to learn a skill that will allow you ... to take care of your family and to be self-sufficient, it is the greatest tool that we have and that we will put to good use to reduce violence in our city,” Parker said.

But others in the room declined to hedge.

“Parker is gonna take and even expand what we’ve done in this great city, and when we’re done and she’s done, Philadelphia is gonna be the crown jewel of the United States,” said Robert Bair, president of the Pennsylvania Building & Construction Trades Council.

Bair and Boyer noted their own close relationship, which, by their account, doesn’t follow precedent. They talk at least once a week, Boyer said, but his Philadelphia predecessors didn’t do the same with the statewide organization.

Bair said Philadelphia’s pre-apprenticeship programs have become a model for unions across the state to bring in workers who don’t have a family tie to the trades. He echoed a sentiment Boyer made in no uncertain terms in the first minute of the multi-hour event: that the unions are looking to recruit anyone willing to work.

“If you’re Black, if you’re white, if you’re male, if you’re female, if you’re nonbinary — if you wanna work hard and you want to put up with the rigor, you have a place in the Philadelphia building trades,” Boyer said.

That promise “is no longer just talk, but it’s real action,” said State House Speaker Joanna McClinton, calling Boyer’s election “a significant shift in leadership.”

She also highlighted the role of elected officials like Parker, as well as Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson, who created a digital guidebook to help Philadelphians navigate the path to union apprenticeships.

“It provides a real moment where we have leaders ... who’ve been focused on ensuring communities of color have a pipeline into the trades,” McClinton said.

Boyer, taking the mic between each speaker, not only celebrated that moment, but also urged the union members seated before him to continue donating to union-friendly candidates. They should be giving to Democratic state Senate candidates so they can secure a majority in both state legislative bodies, he said.

But, he warned, their first priority should be backing Parker in the general election. They can’t take a win for granted against a “well-funded” Republican opponent, former Councilmember David Oh.

With a roughly 7-to-1 Democrat-to-Republican ratio in the city, Parker’s win in November seems like a vastly safer bet than her victory in May. But if Boyer’s tone is any indication, even then she was no gamble at all. He repeated a metaphor he used just after announcing Parker’s endorsement.

“The Philadelphia building trades has never been a thermometer,” Boyer said. “We are a thermostat, and we turn it up.”