Eric Waterman
Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Ironworkers Management Progressive Action Cooperative Trust (IMPACT)

In 2003, Eric was appointed by General President Joseph Hunt and IMPACT Management Chair William Brown to lead the Ironworkers’ first national labor management trust—IMPACT. Prior to joining IMPACT, Eric was vice president of the National Erectors Association (NEA—now TAUC), where he served for over 18 years. He has had a lifelong career in the construction industry, working first in the field and then in labor relations and safety, before joining the NEA in 1985.

The mission of IMPACT is to create innovative safety, training, and labor-management programs to grow the union ironworking industry. In its short existence, IMPACT has developed a national drug testing program for Ironworkers, created a national Workers’ Compensation Insurance program for contractors, established 10 regional labor-management committees across the country to regain market share, revised and updated many of the Ironworker training materials, and has put in place programs and materials to promote the industry to owners and customers and increase union market share, just to name a few.

His career has focused on, and promoted the unique benefits of, labor-management cooperation—a perfect fit for serving on the NAFC Board of Directors. In the 1990’s, Eric helped lead a labor management coalition of the Ironworkers and contractors to lobby the Department of Labor to use Negotiated Rulemaking to revise the OSHA Steel Erection standard. For the first time ever, the Department of Labor utilized labor and management stakeholders to develop an OSHA construction safety standard. Due to the success of this venture, contractors, International Unions, and the Building Trades Department unsuccessfully lobbied the Bush administration to name Eric the head of OSHA in 2001.

He followed the successful Negotiated Rulemaking by developing another first in the construction industry. Eric led an Ironworker labor-management coalition that trained OSHA compliance officers on the new Steel Erection standard in Ironworking training facilities across the country. For that work, the Engineering News Record (ENR) recognized Eric by nominating him as one of the Top 25 Newsmakers of the year in 2003.

During his career at the NEA, Eric produced several industry recognized videos, including a video to address issues on workers’ compensation—The Casino, the powerful safety impact video—Dancing Alone, and a video that promoted the apprenticeship and training programs of the union construction industry—The Best Kept Secret, for which he won a Telly Award.

Eric acknowledges the support of LECET Executive Director Chris Enquist in helping IMPACT get off the ground in 2003. Waterman has an undergraduate degree from the University of Maryland and an M.A. in business from Johns Hopkins University. Eric is involved in many industry organizations, including serving as the chair of the Building and Construction Trades Department Labor-Management Committee, a member of the Board of Directors of The Association of Union Constructors; and a member of the Leadership Council of the ACE Mentoring Program, among many others.