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Reformers jolt Carpenters convention

By Mike Orrfelt, HardHat Construction magazine and AUD West Coast Rep.

An international union convention, much like a Democratic or Republican party convention, is a grand show, meant to demonstrate power and unity rather than conduct business or make important decisions. The 38th General Convention of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, held in Chicago fourth week in August, would have been a textbook example, if not for those annoying reformers who upset the even tenor of its customary ways.

Actual working carpenters were vastly outnumbered by paid union staffers, who may have comprised as much as 85 percent of the nearly 2000 delegates attending. The canned presentations, scripted cheering and strict adherence to the top leadership’s program illustrated the discredited one-party system that International Unions so closely resemble. A casual observer could easily have concluded that no more important business was conducted than the ritual trading of union lapel pins, always a popular element of Carpenters Union conventions. That conclusion would be wrong. There were two noteworthy aspects to this particular convention.

First, despite overwhelming pressure, a courageous group of rank-and-file members spoke up for those who were not present. While Carpenters General President Doug McCarron told the convention ". . . the union is a tool that helps them [the members] get what they deserve—not give them all they want," a group of 40 of those members demonstrated outside. They protested McCarron’s restructuring, which has removed the rights of members to elect local officials and ratify contracts, as well as consolidated power in large Regional Councils far removed from local unions. Their rallying slogan, "One member, one vote" reminds carpenters and other union members that only a democratic union truly belongs to its members.

On the third day of the convention, the dissident union members nominated candidates opposed to the McCarron Team. They made short speeches reminding delegates of their duty to protect union members’ rights, made the case for a democratic union, and declared their readiness to act as watchdogs over the many large benefit funds that have been an occasional source of scandal in the union.

The next day, the dissidents got a surprising 9 to 14 per cent of the secret ballot vote for the union’s top leadership jobs. Many delegates, wearing McCarron Team lapel pins, privately told the opposition candidates that they were the class of the convention, a desperately-needed voice of honesty.

The second significant aspect of the convention has implications far outside the union itself. McCarron signaled to his that the union is threatening to withdraw from the AFL-CIO, the federation that keeps peace between its affiliates, preventing them from waging war among themselves for members and jurisdiction, both of central concern to building trades unions.

McCarron told the assembled delegates, "I am telling you now: We are looking at how the AFL-CIO and the Building Trades Department spends our money—more than $4 million a year—at the national level. And if they don’t use it as well as we can, they will not use it at all. No member of this Brotherhood is going to see the money they work for, sweat for, risk their lives for, used to pay a Washington bureaucrat’s salary."

Coupled with the complete absence of the Carpenters Union at the last AFL-CIO convention, this statement appears to send a clear signal—the Carpenters are prepared to go it alone. The other unions in the Building Trades Department must be asking themselves if, without the AFL’s restraint, the Carpenters are getting ready to come after their members and their craft jurisdictions. Carpenters President McCarron has fired the first shot in what may turn out to be a war among construction unions.

Articles on the Harrington case and the Carpenters reform movement:
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
Links to Carpenters rank-and-file websites

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