The Pipeline- February, 2014

News and Information about the Eastern Massachusetts Plumbing Industry • February 2014 www.massplumbers.com

Spotlight on PHCC's Ed Strickland

“We need to keep pushing our message

d Strickland, president of the William M. Collins Company, was elected in 2013 as president for the Plumbing Heating Cooling Contractors of Greater Boston. The Pipeline sat down with him to learn more about him, his company, and his plans for his two-year term chairing the organization.

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that we provide better training, have a huge labor pool on which to draw, deliver better quality, and get the job done quickly.”

-Ed Strickland See cover story

Harry Brett is New Head of Local 12 “IT MAY SOUND CORNY,” SAYS HARRY BRETT, who was recently elected to the business manager position of Plumbers Local 12, “but I love the Local and everything it stands for.” Deeply grateful for the opportunities the union has afforded him, Brett was motivated early in his career to get involved and give back. His passion and drive ultimately led him on a path to lead the Local.

Unlike many of his colleagues in the industry, Brett did not have family members who were plumbers to steer him to the trade. But he was good with his hands and always wanted to do something mechaniContinued on page 5

Temp Agencies Dupe Plumbers — May Run Afoul of the Law mong the many things that distinguish labor-affiliated plumbing contractors from non-union shops is the huge pool of highly trained plumbers on which they can draw to quickly ramp up for projects. By working with Boston Local 12, the signatory contractors of the PHCC of Greater Boston can count on getting as many apprentices and journeymen as they need — all of whom are highly skilled and have completed a training program more rigorous and comprehensive than required by the state.

A Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors of Greater Boston 978-777-8764 www.massplumbers.com www.phccboston.com

United Association Plumbers and Gasfitters Boston Local 12 617-288-6200 www.plumbersandgasfitterslocal12.org

In an attempt to mimic the labor pool concept — minus the rigorous and well-rounded training — temp agencies are making plumbers available to nonunion contractors. The practice, however, raises many red flags, not the least of which is that it likely violates state laws.

Continued on page 2

Strickland has deep roots in plumbing. He has worked in the trade virtually his entire life. “I remember being about six years old, and my dad said, ‘Come on Ed, we’re going to a job,’ ” Strickland says. His father, William “Bill the Bull” was working for Duncan Ayles’ plumbing shop at the time and also moonlighting on small jobs to bring in extra income. He put young Ed to work cleaning fittings, starting up the furnace pot, and other tasks. Eventually he worked alongside his father doing things such as installing soil pipes and cleaning oil burners.

When Bill (who, according to Ed, was as strong as his “Bull” nickname suggested) bought the Collins Company in 1964, Strickland continued to help his dad and worked summers at the shop from the time he was 14 through college. While his father, two uncles, and two brothers (including his older brother, Bob, who worked for many years in the family’s business and served as PHCC of Greater Boston president from 1993 to 1995) all became plumbers, Strickland decided to try a different path at first.

Since he had an artistic bent and enjoyed drawing, Strickland went to Blue Hills Regional Trade School and studied mechanical drafting. He then went to Blue Hills Technical Institute and Southeastern Mass. University (now UMass Dartmouth) and earned a fine arts degree in graphic design. All the while, he continued working at Collins during his summer breaks. When Strickland graduated in the ED STRICKLAND is the president of the PHCC of Greater Continued on page 4 Boston through 2015.

Apprentices Get Raw Deal with Temp Agencies Continued from page 1 It also calls into question issues such as who, if anybody, is taking responsibility for the temporary workers, and to what degree are the contractors, the temp agencies, the project owners, and the temporary plumbers exposed to liability. Caught in the middle, apprentices who sign on with temp agencies get an especially raw deal. Among the downsides, they jeopardize their career path by forfeiting the hours they accrue on the job.

The Labor Force Seems to Be Permanently Going Temporary

As part of a general erosion of workers’ rights and benefits, temp agencies have been changing the typical relationship between a growing number of employees and employers. While the concept is associated more with office personnel, it has been creeping into many other job sectors, such as healthcare. More recently, temp agencies have targeted the construction industry as well, including the plumbing trade.

Several agencies are providing workers to non-union building trades contractors in the area. The agencies, not the contractors, manage the hiring, the billing, and other HR details and function as the employer. When contractors no longer need their services, they send temp workers back to the agencies. Since contractors aren’t technically laying off the temp workers, the employees are not able to collect unemployment.

And since the contractors aren’t directly hiring the workers, they don’t have to pay payroll taxes, FICA, workers’ compensation, or assume any other obligations other than the temp agency fees. “Non-union contractors have essentially created a firewall,” says Paul Coutinho who has been studying the issue as an analyst with the Labor-Management Cooperation Trust analyst for Plumbers Local 12 and the PHCC of Greater Boston. “They

don’t have any responsibility regarding the workers’ employment needs and training. Their only responsibility is the project and its completion, regardless of any consequences from using plumbers who may not have the proper expertise for the work.”

obtain their journeyman licenses.

In addition to classroom training, apprentices need to document that they have completed 8500 hours, or roughly four years, of on-the-job experience working under the direct supervision of a master plumber.

What would happen, Coutinho wonders, if temp agency plumbers were injured on the job? It is a question that he says nobody seems to be able to answer. The plumbing companies wouldn’t be responsible since they did not directly hire the employees and have not paid any workers’ compensation.

Would the temp agencies therefore be responsible? How about the job owners? Would the injured employee be left with no coverage? “Nobody knows,” he says. “It’s a classic problem of third-party labor.”

In the case of a plumber who works for a temporary agency, the agency is the employer of record, and any hours spent working for a third-party plumbing contractor would not count towards his or her journeyman license requirements. Apprentices

License to Shill Beyond issues such as responsibility, liability, and unemployment benefits, the questionable practice of making plumbers available through a temp agency is further complicated by the fact that plumbing is a licensed trade and is regulated by state laws. Chapter 142 of the Commonwealth’s general laws, which addresses the supervision of plumbing, states, “A person may be employed as an apprentice plumber by a master plumber only.” The law also stipulates that plumbing companies must include a licensed master plumber. The provisions help ensure that plumbing work is conducted safely, professionally, and correctly in the state. Since temp agencies are not plumbing companies and do not include master plumbers, it would seem that they could not, under the law, employ apprentice plumbers. And yet, that is exactly what they are doing.

The same laws that govern the employment of plumbers also spell out the regulations and requirements that apprentice plumbers must follow in order to

may be surprised to find that the months or years they spent working through a temporary agency compromises their eligibility and prevents them from taking their journeyman license exam.

The issue of temporary agencies employing plumbers is on the radar of the state’s Division of Professional Licensure and the Division of Occupational Safety.

Coutinho is hopeful that the practice will stop. “It’s a real problem,” he says. “It’s similar to the problems raised by people working under the table.”

Water Innovation Pursued at MA Clean Energy Center Massachusetts is known as a Water innovation includes techleader in many industries, includnologies to track water use and ing biotechnology, high tech, create systems that reuse and alternative energy. water or reduce its need The Patrick adminfor cooling, wastewater, GreenBlue istration would landscaping, irrigation, Plumbers like to add anALWAYS PROTECTING and other purposes.

THE ENVIRONMENT other industry Examples include deto the list: water salination systems, adinnovation. vanced water filtration, and leak-detection technology.

Population growth and limited resources are spurring demand for water, potable or otherwise, around the world. With it, the demand for new, effective ways to deliver, treat, and monitor water is also increasing. Companies are converging in the state to develop new and improved systems and technologies, prompted in part by initiatives and programs at the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. They hope to compete in the $500-billion-and-growing water innovation industry.

In June, the CEC awarded state grants at a symposium on water innovation. Recipients included a project in Barnstable that is testing a new wastewater treatment technology, a researcher at Northeastern University who is exploring the feasibility of extracting water from oil and other materials, and a startup in Boston that is working on condensation technology for heat exchangers, HVAC, dehumidifiers, and other uses.

The CEC, formed as part of the Green Jobs Act of 2008 and launched in 2009, helps to bridge the research, business, and investment communities to promote clean energy technologies, projects, and firms in the state. The burgeoning sector has been a source of job growth and an increasingly important part of the state’s economy. In addition to water, projects include wind, biomass, solar, and organics-to-energy technologies.

According to the CEC, the state has about 300 water industry companies and organizations.

In addition to tackling global issues, they are working on local challenges such as Massachusetts’ aging water infrastructure and the nutrient loading that is besieging coastal areas such as Cape Cod due to the proliferation of septic systems.

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In Praise of Boston’s Heroic Hospital Community

by John C. Cannistraro, Jr.

The new Spaulding Hospital made headlines when it was called into action soon after it opened to accommodate some of the Marathon bombing victims.

John Cannistraro, Jr., president of Cannistraro, the PHCC of Greater Boston firm that handled the plumbing, mechanical, and fire protection work for the new facility, was moved by the hospital’s response, as well as the response of Boston’s entire medical community. He wrote this article that originally appeared in High Profile.

As a resident and business owner in the Greater Boston area, I have always known how lucky I am to have some of the world’s premier hospitals located just minutes from my front door. Throughout my career I have had the privilege of knowing and working with the leaders of many of the first-class hospitals and healthcare networks that save lives and provide hope on a daily basis. In light of the recent events that put a dark cloud over our city, it was these individuals that helped me see a silver lining.

As many as 170 people were brought to Boston area hospitals during and after the April 15 Marathon attack. Off-duty doctors and surgeons, as well as selfless other citizens jumped into action to help complete strangers get to safety. Victims in need of hospital care were expediently disbursed among eight different hospitals within city limits, and the first patient in need of emergency surgery was on the operating table in less than an hour.

Every patient brought to a hospital from the frontlines of Boylston Street survived. Despite all of the horror that occurred throughout that week, the actions and preparedness of the first responders and medical community give us all a reason to be proud.

The conditions that doctors experienced on Marathon Monday

were equivalent to those found in war-ravaged Afghanistan or the streets of Port Au-Prince, Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. Traumatic events such as these helped Boston hospitals prepare for an emergency event of this scale and magnitude. Hospital personnel underwent extensive emergency response training.

Medical workers extended their shifts through all hours of the night; physicians assumed the roles of emergency commanders and military-style coding systems were used to facilitate easier communication. Employees were connected to social media outlets thereby receiving the quickest updates imaginable.

In fact, when news of the blasts broke on Twitter, personnel at each hospital campus initiated protocol for relocating patients to make room for the dozens of arriving victims in need of emergency surgery and care. The preparedness planning and emergency response drills saved lives here in Boston. Yet when asked about the bravery and patriotism they exhibited that day, hospital staff said that they were simply doing their jobs.

Ten days after the Marathon attack, one area hospital, Spaulding Rehab, was scheduled to move from its West End location to an all-new, state-of-the-art facility in the Charlestown Navy Yard. Despite having 18 new patients and more than 100 patients already in its care, Partners Healthcare proudly and efficiently moved forward with the move on April 25. In a stroke of good luck (or more realistically a sign of the leadership and commitment of Partners’ Planning and Development team), the new Spaulding is already being lauded as an industry leader in patient care and prosthetic technology. With the new hospital built and ready-togo, Spaulding provided a safe, comfortable place for trauma victims to rehabilitate both physically and emotionally after an unusually trying period of time.

At the hospital’s grand opening, Spaulding’s chairman got it right when he said, “I am extraordinarily grateful that we are supported here by the best medical care community in the world.

We have never needed them more.” Those of us in the design and construction community often look at our projects as brick and mortar; once completed, on to the next. It is refreshing to look a bit deeper and know that we are all building facilities that save lives every day.

A PREFABRICATED PLUMBING BATTERY installed at Spaulding.

New Spaulding Rehab Facility Opens IF YOU DRIVE INTO OR OUT OF THE CITY over the Tobin Bridge, you can’t miss it. The new, handsome Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital building sits overlooking Boston Harbor at the far end of the Charlestown Navy Yard. The ultra-modern Partners Healthcare facility, which replaces the 42-year-old hospital on Nashua Street, helps to reinforce Boston’s reputation as a mecca of medicine and medical research. Cannistraro, a PHCC of Greater Boston member, handled the plumbing, mechanical, and fire protection work for the $225 million project.

The nine-story, 262,000square-foot hospital represents the latest advances in rehabilitative medicine and is based on a “patient-centered” model that promotes healing and helps patients reach their highest levels of independence. Keenly aware of and sensitive to patients’ accessibility issues, the new facility incorporates technology, novel concepts, and innovative design to minimize barriers. For example, sensor-embedded doors can be activated with a nod of the head. Bathroom sinks were installed at an angle so that wheelchair users wouldn’t splash themselves. Lift systems installed in the ceilings can move non-ambulatory patients from their beds to the bathroom and shower.

Unlike the original Spaulding,

which, consistent with rehab hospitals built in the 1970s, had multiple occupants in each room, the 132 beds at the new facility are all in private rooms.

Each patient has his or her own private bathroom, which created plenty of plumbing work for Cannistraro. Also unlike the building it replaces, all of the bathrooms throughout the new facility are wheelchair accessible and ADA-compliant.

According to John Cannistraro, Jr., president of the mechanical firm, Spaulding was the company’s single most prefabricated hospital project to date. While the number of bathrooms, fixtures, piping assemblies, and other plumbing was considerable, the onsite installation went smoothly because pre-constructed components arrived intact and ready to be assembled. A pioneer in the concept of prefabrication, the Cannistraro’s Watertown campus includes a 30,000-squarefoot prefab shop.

Among Spaulding’s unique characteristics and construction challenges, the hospital includes both a large therapy pool and a SwimEx exercise pool that it features as part of its rehabilitation programs. The pools are key components of the hospital’s outreach campaign to expand Continued on page 6 PAGE 3

Construction Moves Out of the Basement he protracted recession that began in 2008 has taken a huge toll on the economy and on people’s lives. But some were hit harder than others, and no sector, or the people whose livelihood depends on it endured more pain than the construction industry.

The Boston area has been faring a bit better than the rest of the country, but local building trades, including plumbers, have still suffered a terrible blow.

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Amid all of the turmoil, weary and wary unemployed and underemployed workers as well as contractors looked for signs that the economy was improving and, in particular, that area construction projects were regaining some traction. Starting in 2011, cranes tentatively began popping up at a few construction sites in and around Boston, and the momentum began picking up.

There are many high-profile buildings either under construction or starting shortly. But none looms larger, at least metaphorically, than the Filene’s property.

Granted, the Downtown Crossing project’s troubles began before the economy tanked, but that only helps to make its on-again status all the more significant. If the developers behind the Filene’s block could resolve their issues and line up financing, it would seem to be a sure indication that things really are improving.

In addition to the project’s significance to the construction industry, it represents an important breakthrough for the community at large. Once the retail heart of the city, Downtown Crossing gradually devolved as suburban malls sucked away shoppers and tenants.

When the defunct Filene’s closed its flagship location, known Through it all, one for the markdowns in stalled project came its beloved basement to symbolize Boston’s at least as much as the construction industry more posh displays in woes: the Filene’s its above-ground block. With cranes store, it was a sad day and workers finally for Bostonians. When on the scene at the The Filene’s project. the building was debustling construction site, a corner truly seems to have molished and the site was in limbo for years while the project was put been turned.

“It might have been character- on hold, it left a figurative and litized as a recession, but for us, it was eral hole in the city. With it finally really a depression,” says Harry back on track, the people of Brett, business manager for Boston can move on and look at Plumbers Local 12. “We went from the site as well as Downtown virtually no unemployment to more Crossing and the city as a whole than 40% unemployment in a mat- with a renewed sense of optimism and hope. ter of months. It was horrible.”

It’s been a slow, but steady recovery, and the tone has shifted at the union hall from plumbers seeking work to the Local seeking members.

Rick Carter, the Local’s training center director, says that he will be adding a new class of apprentices in the middle of the academic year to help meet the pent-up and future demand of construction projects coming online.

The massive project will include office space, retail shops, and an adjacent 625-foot-tall tower with more than 400 residential units planned. It will help transform the area into more of a neighborhood.

“The Filene’s project is a huge deal,” says Brett. “It’s one of the reasons why I think the future for the building trades is bright.”

Ed Strickland Continued from page 1 difficult economic climate of the mid-1970s however, jobs were scarce, and none of the advertising agencies on whose doors he knocked were hiring.

Seeing the difficult time his son was having landing a graphic arts job, Bill asked him to consider coming to work for him full time.

“I told him that I’d do it until something else came along,” Strickland says with a laugh. “I’ve been here ever since.”

When he came on board as a full-fledged front-office employee, Strickland had to learn the business side of the business.

The business at Collins was different from a traditional plumbing shop, however.

His father, who liked working with pipe and gravitated to unique projects, began specializing in jobs that called for enormous pipe.

Collins became the go-to contractor for projects that called for process piping such as municipal water treatment plants. “Putting in 120-inch pipe is a lot different than putting in 6-inch storm pipe,” Strickland says. “There is lots of rigging involved.”

His father semi-retired and turned over the reins of the company to Strickland in 1984. Among the higher profile jobs Collins has tackled under his watch are the Big Dig, the Walnut Hill Water Treatment Plant, and Deer Island — all projects that firmly fall into the category of big pipe.

He has steered the company in new directions as well. Citing the cyclical nature of the business, Strickland has diversified into more commercial projects and fire protection. While the process piping side of the business is soft now, fire protection work is keeping the shop busy. Collins is handling projects such as the Boylston West high-rise apartments in the Fenway area, the mixed-use high rise replacing Pier 4 on the waterfront in South Boston, and the Chestnut Hill Square mall.

Foreman Hillary “Scotty” Scott stands in front of a huge pipe that was part of a project Collins did for the Fitchburg Wastewater Treatment Plant in 1968.

The Great Recession put a stranglehold on the construction industry, and the pent-up demand it caused is generating plenty of work now for the area’s plumbing contractors. Strickland sees the good times continuing for commercial projects, but says that municipal work will likely remain challenging in the short term.

During his tenure as PHCC president, Strickland hopes to explore ways that he can help his union-affiliated colleagues capitalize on the construction activity and pick up market share. “We need to become more competitive,” he says, noting that it is critical for signatory plumbing contractors to work hand in hand with Local 12 and other labor unions. “And we need to keep pushing our message that we provide better training, have a huge labor pool on which to draw, deliver better quality, and get the job done quickly.” Strickland will help deliver that message as he represents the organization.

Juggling his duties as a business owner and as PHCC of Greater Boston president, Strickland will find time to pursue music, one of his interests outside of the industry. Now that you know he has a degree in graphic design and heads a company that installs pipe as large as 10 feet in diameter, here’s one more thing you probably didn’t know: Strickland plays guitar and has performed professionally. He loves the instrument, and is an avid collector of acoustic guitars.

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Brett Elected as Business Manager Continued from page 1 cal. He did have a relative who was a steam engineer and got him interested in that field. Brett went to a trade school program, got his steam fireman license, and worked as a watch engineer in the high-pressure steam plant at Norfolk County Hospital (which has since closed).

WATERSIDE PLACE is bringing 236 residential rental units to S. Boston.

Housing Demand Drives Construction hile it continues to be slow and anything but steady, all signs point to an economic recovery from the worst recession since the 1930s. The Greater Boston area has been weathering the storm better than other parts of the country. Housing, in particular, has shown resilience here with prices stabilizing and, in many communities, rising.

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One of the factors contributing to the turnaround is housing demand. A net influx of residents to the Commonwealth is creating pressure on the state’s existing housing stock. The projected constant wave of people moving into the area combined with other factors has created the need for new housing construction, especially apartment and multi-unit condominium complexes. The trend will only heat up, analysts predict.

According to a report issued by Northeastern University’s Dukakis Center and spearheaded by noted economist Barry Bluestone, the state needs to double or triple the number of new housing starts to keep pace. It anticipates the total number of new households in the Metro Boston area to increase by 120,000 from 2010 through 2020, or an average of 12,000 additional units of housing needed per year.

Over 80% of the new construction, or 10,000 units per year over the next decade, should be condominiums and apartments, claims the Patrick administration. The state is attracting lots of younger buyers and renters who, along with “empty nester” baby boomers trading down their suburban single-family homes, are competing for smaller units in urban areas.

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino is calling for 30,000 new housing units by 2020 in the state’s biggest city. That is an ambitious goal, but it still wouldn’t come close to meeting the projected demand. Nearby cities such as Quincy, Somerville, and Lowell are ramping up housing construction to capitalize on the boomlet. Many communities and developers are taking advantage of Chapter 40R, the Commonwealth’s “Smart Growth Housing” zoning initiative, which offers incentives to build dense housing near mass transportation and retail districts.

The downturn in the economy, which stifled development across the board and brought housing starts to a near standstill, along with a steady stream of people looking for a place to call home have generated pent-up demand for new construction. That’s good news for the state’s plumbers and other building trades.

Confined to a boiler room all day, Brett decided that he’d rather be on the move out in the field. When some plumbers came to the plant to do some work, they encouraged him to apply to Local 12. He entered the training program in 1986 and apprenticed at C&F Plumbing. (The nowclosed shop was founded in the 1930s by the grandfather of Joe Clancy, president of Local 12 signatory contractor, American Plumbing and Heating Corp.)

“Looking back, it was a learning experience that was unlike most other shops,” Brett says.

Based in Bay Village with customers in Chinatown, Back Bay, and other Boston neighborhoods, C&F focused primarily on residential and commercial service work. While most of his classmates were working on comparatively glamorous new construction projects, Brett was replacing tank liners, fixing bi-transit waste systems, and doing other more mundane, but nonetheless important tasks. It gave him a well-rounded, hands-on overview of the trade. “I worked on plumbing that most of the people in my class had never seen before,” he says. “And you’d have to go to the Plumbing Museum to see it today.”

After 10 years at C&F, Brett left the shop and worked for other contractors on a variety of construction projects such as the Deer Island Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Soon after joining Local 12, he started to attend union meetings.

Brett served on committees including the Joint Apprentice Committee and volunteered to do charity work with the Local

such as repairing plumbing for families in need. In the mid1990s, he was elected as a delegate to the national United Association convention as well as the Local’s recording secretary.

Starting in the mid-1990s, he also taught code programs, gas theory, and other classes at the Local 12 and PHCC of Greater Boston training center.

In 2000, Brett tossed his hat in the ring for one of the open business agent positions and was successful in his bid. “I wanted to do my part to help preserve what the Local has been doing for nearly 125 years,” he says. “It’s good to be part of something bigger than yourself.”

Soon after coming on board, Brett got a better understanding of the multi-faceted nature of the work done by union officials.

While looking out for the welfare of the union members was a critical component, he saw that it was also important to help steer work to the signatory contractors. “Ultimately, it benefits our members,” he says. “In the end, we are all in this together. We’re lucky that we have a great relationship with the PHCC contractors association.”

Over the past 13 years that Brett has been a business agent, membership has grown at Local 12 by about 35%, which is no small feat given the recent nasty economy and the general trend of lower union membership. He hopes to continue adding new members as well as new shops.

“Part of my job is to get the message out and debunk the conventional wisdom,” he says. “We have the best story that nobody knows. If you are a plumber, this is where you should be. If you are a contractor, you can grow with us. If you are an end user, you should be working with us for the tremendous value, efficiency, and experience we offer.”

PAGE 5

Meet Local 12’s Barry Keady

USING THE TRIMBLE A Cannistraro employee uses total station technology at the Spaulding site.

New Spaulding Rehab Continued from page 3 outpatient services at the new Charlestown campus.

The hospital has also been designed to roll out the red carpet for the general public. It is integrated into Boston HarborWalk and includes amenities such as a fishing station, an outdoor garden dining area, and public spaces on its ground floor.

A green roof includes plantings to absorb water and minimize runoff as well as reduce cooling demand. The roof is part of a comprehensive green strategy that earned the facility LEED Gold accreditation. Partly to address its waterfront location and concerns about rising sea levels, the mechanical as well as the electrical and emergency systems are housed in a room atop the roof.

Like many in the industry, Barry Keady hasplumbing in his blood. His brother, uncle, and two cousins are all in the trade. His father wasn’t a plumber, but he was a union organizer who worked with hospital employees.

So it’s only natural that Keady would enter the trade and get involved with the union that represents plumbers. After 25 years as a plumber and Local 12 member, he was elected as a business agent for the union in October 2013.

“I grew up in a union household,” Keady says. “The union has always been important to me.” Soon after joining Local 12, he became an active member. Prior to becoming a business agent, Keady served on boards and committees, including the Local’s executive committee.

For most of his career in the field, Keady worked for O’Shaughnessy Plumbing in Dorchester. Other signatory contractors for whom he worked include Crane Plumbing, E.H. Marchant Co., J.C. Cannistraro, and Commonwealth Plumbing Corp. Keady apprenticed with Thomas G. Gallagher in Cambridge.

Keady replaced Harry Brett, who took over as business manager for Local 12. He is representing the South Shore and other areas in the jurisdiction that are south of the city. Among the major projects on which he will be working are the $1.6-billion, 20-block redevelopment under way in Quincy center and the

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BARRY KEADY is a new business agent.

commercial redevelopment planned for the South Weymouth Naval Air Base.

Citing the need to recapture market share for Local 12 and its signatory contractors, Keady says that he often advocates for the union when he is in the field. He especially enjoys meeting with non-union plumbers who have an open invitation to come in to the hall on Wednesdays and fill out an application.

“It’s important to move the Local forward,” he says, “and I look forward to helping in any way I can.”

Labor and Management Working Together Labor-Management Cooperation Trust Plumbers & Gasfitters Boston Local 12 1240 Massachusetts Avenue Boston, MA 02125 617-288-5400 Editorial Board Harry Brett Business Manager, U.A. Local 12 Edward Strickland President, PHCC of Greater Boston George Donahue Business Agent, U.A. Local 12 Hugh Kelleher Executive Director, PHCC of Greater Boston Roger Gill Funds Administrator, U.A. Local 12