Harry Melander News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

This article first appeared in the Union Advocate. A new president gaveled the 75th convention of the Minnesota State Building and Construction Trades Council to order at Madden’s on Gull Lake today, as delegates unanimously affirmed their Executive Board in electing Laborers Local 563 Business Manager Joe Fowler to lead the statewide organization.  President Emeritus Harry Melander, who retired in June after 12 years leading the council, administered the oath of office to Fowler and other executive officers as one of the convention’s first orders of business.  “I will give it my a...

Unfair? Maybe, but worth it.

Harry Melander, the longtime president of the Minnesota Construction and Building Trades Council, is retiring after nearly 50 years working in the construction trades, the council said Friday. Laborers’ International Union of North American (LiUNA) Local 563 Business Manager Joe Fowler will take over as president of the council, which represents 70,000 skilled union workers in 15 trades. Melander’s retirement is effective June 4. Melander, who became trades council president in 2009, had a 48-year career in the trades — a run that began as a rank-and-file worker, Jennifer Hathaway, the c...

Jessica Looman, executive director of the Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council, has accepted a new job with the Biden administration. Looman is now the deputy administrator of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, trades council President Harry Melander said in a press release. She started her new job Wednesday. “Jessica has dedicated her life to the labor movement and has been a pivotal voice in fighting for working families in Minnesota,” Melander said in a statement. “While we will miss her dedication and leadership at the State Building Trades Counc...