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From the September-October 2006 issue of Union Democracy Review #164
Blocking Carpenters move for more bureaucratic power
by Judith Schneider
(followed by "In Detroit: Carpenters corruption is centralized and efficient")
The Carpenters' union is now organized into a collection of huge, sprawling regional councils in which locals are reduced to the status of impotent administrative units deprived of any significant role in collective bargaining and where the top regional executive secretary treasurer is endowed with near-dictatorial powers. The executive secretary treasurer is elected by delegates from the locals; but, since no one can hold any paid staff job at any level, local or regional, without nomination by the EST, all delegates are beholden to him or her for a job.
After a complaint by Jeff Fearon of Chicago Local 58 and other members, the U.S. Department of Labor rejected an effort by the union to make its council structure even more rigid and even less subject to challenge from the membership. The Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters represents 47,000 members of 42 locals in 82 counties in three states. In May 2006, the department sued to void the July 2005 election of officers of the Chicago council. The key issue in dispute is a provision in the council's bylaws which requires all aspiring candidates to have previously served as council delegates for three successive years to be eligible to run for regional office. The department challenges this rule as unreasonable.
The suit also charged that not all council delegates had been elected by secret ballot. Apparently, if you were a regional officer when the delegate elections occurred, you were automatically declared a delegate from your local. The DOL sought new nominations and elections of all council delegates and all council officers. (See UDR # 163)
Members inform us that the court has approved a settlement proposed by the DOL and the regional council. The settlement does not alter the Carpenters' system of permitting only delegates, virtually all dependent for their jobs on the good will of the chief regional officer, to elect the regional officers. However, it does require new elections, under the supervision of the DOL, for all regional officers and for delegates in some locals. For that supervised election, notwithstanding constitutional or bylaw provisions, the union has agreed that essentially all members in good standing in any of the council's constituent locals will be permitted to be candidates for regional office; they are not required to be delegates nor to be present at nomination meetings. In addition, regional officers can not serve ex officio as local delegates. Every delegate allotted to the local must be elected by the membership; in locals that have not yet held elections for each delegate slot, a DOL supervised election must be conducted. DOL supervision is also required in elections to fill delegate slots that are vacant regardless of the reason for the vacancy. It appears that rerun delegate elections will be held in about 11 of the 42 locals.
Jeff Fearon, one of the complainants who triggered the suit, was granted intervenor status by the court. This carried the right to comment on any proposed settlement before it was accepted. Working pro se, he submitted comprehensive memoranda laying out his objections to the proposal. These included: the failure of the agreement to require a permanent rule change in ensure that the same violations would not be repeated; failure to include notice provisions; scheduling reruns for a time when many members are not in the area; and ambiguity and inconsistencies in rerun election rules. The DOL argued that many of these objections could be addressed during the rerun process; the court apparently agreed
However, although unsuccessful in modifying the proposed agreement, Fearon's status as intervenor will surely strengthen his role in reviewing the DOL's supervision of the election.
In Detroit: Carpenters corruption is centralized and efficient
According to the Detroit News Ralph Mabry, executive secretary treasurer of the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters, was sentenced to two years in prison and a $50,000 fine for receiving $127,000 from contractors in discounts toward building his $803,000 home. His assistant was sentenced to a year and a day plus a $3,000 fine.
There's something special about this case. As executive secretary treasurer of this regional council, which represents 23,000 carpenters statewide, he was endowed with authoritarian power that insulated him from membership control and gave him near-dictatorial control over all local affiliates and staff members, local or regional. In justifying the reorganization of the union and combining all locals under all-powerful executive secretaries, International President Douglas McCarron argued that such a super-centralized system was imperative to end petty corruption in the union and to make the union more effective in meeting the great challenges of our epoch.
In one odd, limited but not unanticipated way, McCarron
was right. Petty local corruption seems to have been replaced, at least
in Michigan, by more efficient, centralized corruption at a higher level.
Articles
on the Carpenters union:
Carpenters
Mystery
Blocking Carpenters move for more bureaucratic power
In
Detroit: Carpenters corruption is centralized and efficient
The
eternal quest for fair hiring in construction
Carpenters win right to elect regional council officers
Consolidation
in the Construction Trades
Carpenters
form National Reform Group
Reformers
Jolt Carpenters Convention
Carpenters
Reformers Win in New England
Court
challenges DOL on Carpenters Regional Council
Harrington v Chao: Judge
Stearns's "memorandum and order" (pdf)
AUD Bill of Rights
for the Building Trades
AUD brief opposing stay of
order
Sample letter requesting direct elections
Letter to Carpenters from Carl
Biers
Court deals setback
for democracy in Carpenters union
At
the Carpenters Union convention in Las Vegas
Links to Carpenters rank-and-file websites
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Next Article: Round 2 in the internet battle in AFSCME DC37
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