September 26, 2024

Brynn Bourke – Executive Director
FOR ME, POLITICS IS PERSONAL. It’s not something that happens over in Victoria or Ottawa. It’s something that affects my family, my friends and my community. It’s been that way since I was 15. At that time, a right wing government was slashing jobs across the province and my father was one of the people laid off. My family lost everything. The impact of those political decisions affected me in a very personal way and that experience changed my life. I took out membership in the BC NDP at 18 and made it my mission to get progressive political parties elected.
Politics is personal for most people. It’s personal for the injured workers whose compensation benefits were slashed and it’s personal for apprentices who had their entire training framework dismantled overnight by the last right wing government.
It can also be personal in positive ways. Like when the BC NDP brought in mandatory licensing for asbestos abatement contractors and compulsory training for abatement workers. I watched life-long, hardened trade unionists holding back tears knowing that after decades of exposures to asbestos in our industry, things were going to be a hell of a lot safer for the incoming generation.
And it was personal when the BC NDP made changes making it easier to join a union and keep a union with legislation bringing in single-step certification and successorship provisions. Workers who had been grinding away in precarious employment suddenly had access to better wages, pensions and benefit plans that meant they could do things like pay for braces for their kids.
When I talk about politics being personal, I’m not suggesting that we shouldn’t talk about politics. We absolutely should talk about politics because they’re personal!
As construction workers, the next government is going to have a huge impact on where you work and whether you work. Over the past seven years, the BC NDP has committed more than $10 billion in projects to unionized trades people. Do you know how much work was awarded to unionized workers through Project Labour Agreements by the previous right wing government? Zero.
Politics not only impact where you work but what type of conditions might be waiting for you when you get there. This year, the BC government will bring in a regulation requiring the construction industry provide flush toilets on sites of 25 workers or more. That change is a direct result of the BC Building Trades sitting down with Premier David Eby and asking him for action. Having a clean place to go to the washroom and running water to wash your hands – it may not get much more personal than that.
This election, there’s a lot at stake. The government we elect will have a very personal impact on you and the people you care about. It is important to share your story. I urge you to talk to your friends and colleagues about the issues and your personal experiences on how the platforms will affect you. Make sure this election, you make it personal. Get out there and vote.
Brynn Bourke,
Executive Director