Mike Gallagher
Business Manager
Mike Gallagher joined Local 793 of the International Union of Operating Engineers in 1985, working in the roadbuilding and sewer and watermain sectors. He went on to become a business rep in 1987 and became labour relations manager in 1994.
Mike was elected to the position of business manager in 1996 and has held the position since that time. In 2024, he was re-elected by acclamation for an unprecedented eight consecutive term.
In October 2005, he was appointed as an International trustee. He also became the first Local 793 member to be appointed as a Canadian pension trustee on the General Pension Plan. In March 2011, he was appointed as an IUOE general vice president – the first Local 793 member since Rowland Hill in 1972 to hold this position. He has held the position for more than 13 years and currently sits as second vice president.
Mike is co-chair of the Operating Engineers Training Trust Fund and is on the board of trustees of Local 793’s Life and Health Benefits Trust Fund and the Pension Trust Fund. He has held many positions with various construction industry organizations.
Mike was on the Board of Directors for the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board from 2014 to 2019. He has been a director of the Multi-Employer Benefit Council of Ontario and the Ontario Construction Secretariat. He is a past president of the Construction Safety Association of Ontario (2004-2005) and past chair of the Provincial Advisory Committee for Hoisting.
Mike was also appointed to a special committee for multi-employer pension plans to advise the Financial Services Commission of Ontario and was on a construction advisory committee set up by the provincial government to study apprenticeship issues.
He also spearheaded an effort to get the Ontario Ministry of Labour to set up a committee of employers, labour and government representatives to look at the state of tower cranes in the province’s construction industry. The Tower Crane Review Committee came up with a number of recommendations.
In 2008, Mike led a successful effort to raise $170,000 to purchase and send a bulldozer and ripper to the Mully Children’s Family Charitable Foundation, an organization that helps orphaned children in Kenya. He also organized a fundraising dinner in 2010 that raised $181,000 for victims of the earthquake in Haiti.
Mike was co-chair of the Barbara Turnbull Golf Tournament that raises money for spinal cord research. A total of $1.6 million was raised during his tenure from 1999 to 2011. He also initiated the Gary O’Neill Memorial Golf Tournament in 2012 that raises money for cancer research at University Hospital Network. To date, $1,208,726.82 has been raised – money that went directly to the fight against esophageal cancer.
In 2002, Mike was a recipient of the Queen’s Jubilee Medal, and in 2012 he was a recipient of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal. In 2013, he was awarded the Roy A. Phinnemore Award by the Infrastructure Health & Safety Association (IHSA), the highest form of recognition of an individual whose outstanding contributions to the construction industry have been deemed noteworthy and significant.
Mike attended Carleton University. He and his wife, Dorcas, have two children – Nathan and Breeann.