On April 11, Nick Harrington learned that his local needed him. On April 18, he started full-time as business manager of 670-member Cement Masons Local 555. Harrington, 49, has been a member since 2004 and has worked for just about every company that’s signatory with the local. When he learned the business manager position would be vacant, he was six months into a full-time job as an instructor training apprentices in the union training center.
Former Local 555 business manager Geoff Kossak retired in December, and the union executive board appointed business agent José Ávalos to serve the two years remaining of his three-year term. But in early April, Ávalos decided he needed to step back from the responsibility of being business manager to help at home with the addition of a newborn child. Ávalos will continue on staff as a union business agent.
Harrington got his start in construction in the Detroit area, encouraged by an ironworker buddy. He worked four years as a member of the Laborers union and then joined Detroit-area Cement Masons Local 514 in 1998. When he moved to the Portland area in 2004 to be near his mom, he became a member Local 555. He also served on the Executive Board the last two years.
Just like at other building trades union locals, Local 555’s business manager is responsible for nearly everything that goes on in the union. Harrington will have his hands full immediately leading negotiations with employers. Local 555’s area master agreements with Associated General Contractors (AGC) and the General and Concrete Contractors Association (GCCA) expire May 29.
Harrington says he’ll serve until Kossak’s elected term ends in November 2026, and will likely run again. Cement masonry is physically hard, and members often retire in their 50s, but Harrington thinks he may go another dozen years.
Besides Kossak’s retirement and Ávalos’ return to business agent, the local has lately had several other staff changes. Apprenticeship instructor Noah Jones quit and dispatcher Liz Nichols decided to go back to the tools as a working cement mason.
As business manager, Harrington will oversee a staff of four: Ávalos, dispatcher Ricardo Dominguez, business rep Gene Standley, and office manager Cindy Griffiths. The local shares its office space and its training center at 12812 NE Marx St. with a fellow masonry trades union, Bricklayers and Allied Crafts Local 1 of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. Harrington is too new in the position to have medium-term plans beyond negotiating the contract, but he hopes to encourage greater involvement by members in the union and increase membership, especially in the Eugene area and in Southern Idaho.
