Mark Ayers

A man of vision, innovation and out of the box thinking, Mark Ayers was the quintessential 'builder' - of coalitions, consensus, and grassroots energy. As President of the Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO, he built new cooperative labor-management models in the nuclear, oil and natural gas, pharmaceutical, electrical and petro-chemical industries. He built support for project labor agreements to ensure workers and their communities benefitted from local construction projects. He built on the dreams of his members - laborers, electricians, plumbers and construction workers - to make the Building Trades a more diverse and inclusive place for all working men and women. And in so doing, the Peoria, Ill., native build a reputation as one of the most principled and effective trade unionist leaders of his generation.