I am a lifelong Bostonian who has been fortunate to be able to provide a better life for my family and to give more back to my community because of the opportunities, wages, and benefits I have earned as a union bricklayer. I want the same for all of my neighbors and for any worker or family in the city of Boston that is striving for a better future.

I point with pride to the projects I have worked on as a bricklayer, including the Science Center at UMass Boston, the Boston Arts Academy, and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. I struggled in low-wage jobs early in life, which made it hard for me to pay rent, put food on the table, and otherwise provide for my family. Now, I am a homeowner with a stable financial footing and a secure retirement.

All of this was made possible because I said “yes” to the opportunities and the pathway to the middle-class presented to me at a building near the intersection of Dorchester Ave. and Columbia Road – the Bricklayers & Allied Craftsmen Apprentice Training Center, a gateway for hundreds of Boston residents who’ve made generational changes like I have, securing a future for me that is clear, and making my family proud.

Learning a craft and helping to make our city strong by knowing how to do quality, authentic, laid-in-place masonry is something I would recommend to anyone who likes to work with their hands and wants to earn a great living.

Unfortunately, the career opportunities and community benefits created through the bricklaying trade are being put at risk by developers who are proposing to build in Boston with so-called “imitation brick panels” instead of with the authentic laid-in-place masonry work that Boston residents like me have made the tools of our trade.

The use of these artificial substitutes that are manufactured outside of the United States or at factories inside the US where companies don’t pay living wages are creating an outsourcing effect on good jobs for Boston residents, and destroying pathways to the middle class as a result.

When I hear about developers making proposals to use faux brick panels, it’s very personal, because I know that every proposal to use those fake materials is a proposal to outsource my job. I know that to some decision-makers in the process, people like me are numbers on a balance sheet. How much could one job possibly matter? Well, it matters a lot to me and my family, and, unfortunately, the use of faux brick panels not only cheapens the look of our city, but it also puts hundreds of jobs at risk for families just like mine.

What difference does it make if we use fake brick panels made in another country instead of real brick masonry done right here in Boston? To my son, Javari, it makes all the difference. Javari is the center of my world and I am able to keep our world together because of the great job I have as a member of Local 3 helping to build our city with authentic masonry work that is better for the environment than the fake products that some are trying to sneak by various approval processes.

Becoming a bricklayer and helping to build my city is the best choice I ever made. Now, impact advisory boards and other stakeholders in the evolving Boston development process also have a choice to make when it comes to proposals that use faux brick panels instead of real masonry and brickwork done by workers like me. My hope is that by telling my story they will say “No” to outsourced brick panels and “Yes” to good jobs for Boston families like mine.

Anthony Toney is a member of Bricklayers Local 3 Boston.