Title
Recognizing Ryan Boyer, business manager of Laborers' District Council of Metropolitan Philadelphia & Vicinity, for making history as the first African American business manager of the Philadelphia Building Trades Council.
Body
WHEREAS, On November 17, 2021, Ryan N. Boyer made history as the first African American to become business manager of the Philadelphia Building Trades Council, which comprises 30 union locals across the region in construction-related trades; and
WHEREAS, Boyer also serves as business manager of Laborers' District Council of Metropolitan Philadelphia & Vicinity, representing 6,200 members across four locals, which are the only majority-Black building trade unions in the region; and
WHEREAS, Union work is a family business for Boyer, as his father was a laborer whose was able to move his family from the Richard Allen public housing projects to Germantown and later Overbrook. After school, Boyer joined Local 332 as a laborer for about five years before becoming assistant to his father; and
WHEREAS, As Boyer rose in the union ranks he saw an opportunity to help provide access to middle-class wages is a way to grow power in the City for people of color. He understood the importance of unions in ensuring availability of family sustaining employment for the people of Philadelphia; and
WHEREAS, The work of unions is woven into the fabric of Philadelphia, with the first labor union being formed here in 1794. Since then, unions have worked to improve wages and benefits for all workers, and to improve the economic well-being for all working in the City. Unions' work is integral to help reduce income inequality, protect workers, and to reduce disparities; and
WHEREAS, Boyer's election to business manager is a sign of the diversification of the historically White-dominated building trade unions, and is a step towards ensuring that the unions reflect the diversity of Philadelphia and the greater region; and
WHEREAS, Boyer's impact on Phil...
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