VINCE ALVARADO MY JOURNEY

Business Manager/Financial Secretary Treasurer, Local 49 Member of the Best Practices Market Expansion Task Force

I am a third-generation union sheet metal worker from El Paso, Texas, so you can say sheet metal work is in my blood. I was elected Business Manager/FST of Local 49 in 2010, after 22 years of leadership roles in the craft and a successful six years as Local 49 organizer and training coordinator. I also serve on the Board of Trustees of both the Local 49 Health Plan and Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee.

I am now in my fourth term as manager, and I am passionate about preserving the rights of all working men and women. I serve on several state committees, including the New Mexico Construction Industries Commission, NM Workforce Development Board, and the NM Legislative Council State Jobs Council. I am also currently serving as the president of the NM State Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO.

In 2016, I was appointed to the National Best Practices Market Expansion Task Force, and I firmly believe that building strong labor-management relationships is important because when we both pull in the same direction we can move the bar, instead of playing tug of war!

I worked hard to defeat Right to Work Legislation and restore sheet metal prevailing wages in the last three NM Legislative sessions, and to help get ground-breaking Fire Life Safety legislation passed. I also received the honor of being affirmed as one of New Mexico’s five 2020 Presidential Electoral College Electors by the Democratic Party of New Mexico.

While managing a territory as large as Local 49 keeps me busy and on the road quite a bit, traveling the state of New Mexico and the El Paso and Amarillo/Lubbock areas of west Texas, I still find time to spend with my family in El Paso and Dallas, Texas, and to get in the occasional round of golf.

There are ups and downs in the economy and that affects our industry, but opportunities are endless in this trade. It is up to you to be prepared so when the opportunity opens, you are there to take it and run. ▪