Ayers Elected Building Trades President
September 10, 2007
 Construction and Maintenance Department Director Mark Ayers was elected president of the 3 million member Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO, on Sept. 6. The BCTD Governing Board of Directors chose Ayers to replace Edward Sullivan, who retires
Oct. 1.
“I look forward to addressing the challenges and seizing the opportunities that present themselves to the union construction industry,” Ayers said. “I want to thank the Governing Board of Presidents for bestowing their confidence in me and, with the assistance of Secretary-Treasurer Sean McGarvey, I will do all that I can to enhance our stature as the world’s No. 1 choice for quality, skilled labor in the construction industry.”
IBEW International President Edwin D. Hill said Ayers will be missed by the members, who have benefited from Ayers’s hard work and innovative stewardship of the department. Ayers brought many of President Hill’s policies to fruition, including the Code of Excellence, a renewed commitment to high quality work that has been adopted by nearly all of the other building trades unions.
“Mark Ayers has been a true asset to the IBEW’s Construction and Maintenance membership; we will miss his talent, his heart and his commitment to our members,” Hill said. “But the members of the BCTD will be well served by his experience as an administrator, a negotiator and as a labor activist who understands the nuances of a changing construction industry. The leaders of the AFL-CIO’s building trades have made a wise choice.”
Ayers has served since 1998 as director of the IBEW’s Construction and Maintenance Department. He has been a member of Peoria., Ill., Local 34 since 1973, which he headed as business manager for nine years after working his way up through the ranks, first as an inside wireman, then treasurer, business representative and assistant business manager.
He was co-founder and chairman of the Central Illinois chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Association-IBEW Local 34 Quality Connection. He was appointed to the National Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee by former International President J.J. Barry. He has served as a trustee and chairman of the NECA-IBEW Welfare and Pension Trust Funds and has been a member of the board and on the executive committee of the Peoria Area Labor Management Council and the Labor Management Cooperative Health Program.
Ayers attended the George Meany Institute for Labor Studies, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Illinois Institute of labor and Industrial Relations. He also served in the U.S. Navy as
an aviator.
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