Jack Schaefer, a respected labor negotiator in Las Vegas, president of the Nevada Contractors Association and a board member of several union trusts and apprenticeship programs, died on April 15 in that city. He was 64 and had pancreatic cancer, according to the association.
After a Denver-based marketing career, Schaefer became labor relations director in 1990 for the Associated General Contractors chapter in Las Vegas. He left five years later in a leadership rift and launched NCA, a rival trade group that represents contractors that are union-only. AGC represents both union and non-union companies. “At the time, AGC was promoting non-union guys, but it was the revenue generated from the union contractors that supported the group. We were funding our competition,” says Howdy Wells, chairman of Cargo Construction. “Jack could talk to any of the unions, and they believed him.”