Tim Green resigns state building trades council post

Tim Green, veteran legislator, rank-and-file union electrician and president of the Missouri State Building Trades Council for the past 20 years, has resigned his council post effective April 1. Because of term limits, his 22-year political career ended last year after serving eight years in the Missouri Senate and 14 years in the Missouri House.

Green will become the face of the electrical industry as the director of political, public and community relations for the St. Louis Electrical Connection, the association of union electrical contractors in the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) and IBEW Local 1, in the eastern half of Missouri.

“Having Tim’s years of experience available to our local and the NECA contractors is a major plus, and a great asset, for the electrical industry,” said IBEW Local 1’s Business Manager Frank Jacobs.

Jacobs added that Green’s responsibilities will include providing political advice, monitoring and helping the industry implement policy changes at the local and state level, representing the industry and local and regional events, sitting on boards that NECA feels are critical to the industry and making political fundraising recommendations to both Local 1 and NECA.

He added that Green’s efforts have not only been helpful to the electrical industry over the years he’s been in Jefferson City, “he has fought hard for all union people.”

WORKING FOR PEOPLE

 “I’ve dedicated my life to the causes of working people in the Missouri Legislature and this gives me the opportunity to continue that effort to help working people and the companies that employ them,” Green told the Labor Tribune.

The council will hold a special election April 3 in Jefferson City to elect a new president.

Speculation is that Senator Gina Walsh, herself a veteran legislator, could be a top candidate for job. Walsh is a member of Asbestos Workers Local 1 and now fills Green’s seat in the Missouri Senate.

“Tim Green has been a champion of labor for many years,” said Jeff Aboussie, executive secretary-treasurer of the St. Louis Building Trades Council. “He led the fight to stop right-to-work in the Senate last year and was also a leader in defeating efforts to weaken project labor agreements and prevailing wage laws in the state.

“He has been a positive force for working families and especially the building trades for decades. We wish him well in his new, challenging job. That he will continue working for unionized construction is a major plus for the entire construction industry,” Aboussie added.

 HONORED

 “I’m honored to be working for the Electrical Connection which gives me the opportunity to continue the work I’ve spent the last 25 years on,” Green said.

Green was recently honored at the St. Louis Building Trades Council’s Greg Booth Labor Man of the Year.

At the building trades awards dinner, Management Man of the Year Mike Fogarty, Sr., chairman, Briner Electric Co. said of Green:

 “He has done so much for the industry without ever asking for anything in return. There is no better example of someone who has worked tirelessly for the benefit of the industry – both labor and management.”