ADVERTORIAL
You can sleep soundly knowing IUPAT doesn’t rest. BY THEA ENGST
Many people come to a trade show as a vendor; many come to help create the trade show itself, and even more come to shop around and see what’s for sale or soon to be for sale. But behind the scenes of the people selling, looking to buy, and the people assembling and creating, are the people representing the builders, the painters, the decorators, and more. That’s where unions like the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades come in to play. The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, or IUPAT, was founded in the 19th century along with so many other unions in America to represent the working-class, their families, and their rights in the workplace. Since then, the IUPAT has only continued to expand throughout the United States and Canada, and to work to help the middle-class and their families to continuously have living wages, reason48 Oct/Nov/Dec 2023 Exhibit City News
able work hours, and safe working conditions. A brief history The IUPAT first started out informally, in the period following the Industrial Revolution and the boom in the need for a new breed of workers at a magnitude America had never seen before. Eventually, this new union grew into a formalized union called The Brotherhood for Painters and Decorators of America in 1887. As a fully formed union in 1887, the Brotherhood for Painters and Decorators began growing quickly and not just that—they were achieving meaningful results. That growth only continued over the decades, and by 1970, the union was renamed the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, to encompass all the working-class people they now represented. Today, it is an impressive 136 years old with no sign of slowing down.
Benefits offered To name a few, IUPAT offers a variety of benefits, including pensions, medical insurance, retirement plans, and life insurance. They also founded a program for children in 2001, Painters and Allied Traders for Children’s Hope, or PATCH, helps support foundations that help children with education, athletics, and medical care. They even help with scholarships. Where is IUPAT now? We sat down with the
Business Representative for Local 1175 for tradeshows, Juan Garcia, who’s been with IUPAT since 1989, to talk about IUPAT’s history, its present, and its future. “The IUPAT represents workers all across the U.S. and Canada,” Garcia told us proudly. “We represent painters, glaziers, drywall finishers, metal polishers, floorers, paper hangers, trade show [employees], sign and display creators, and public sector employees.” (They’ve come a long way from just representing paint-