Irish-American labor union leader
James Boland is a retired Irish-born, American labor union leader.
Born in Ireland, Boland attended University College Dublin. He emigrated to the United States in 1970 and settled in San Francisco, where he worked laying bricks, stone and marble, and joined the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers. He was elected as business agent of his local union, and then in 1992 as its president. His next role was assistant to the vice-president for operations of the international union, and then in 1999 he was elected as secretary-treasurer.
In 2010, Boland was elected as president of the union, and also became a vice-president of the AFL-CIO. He was presented with the Eugene V. Debs Award in 2015. He retired in 2020.