600 Electricians Picket Carpenters for Raid;
Conflict Between the Two Crafts Intensifies

More than 600 union electricians in St. Louis formed a moving informational picket line around the headquarters of the Carpenters District Council, whose Local 57 had been created to perform electrical work at prices and wages about 20 percent lower than the scale set by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

With IBEW’s Local 1 and Carpenters Local 57 both competing for electrical work in the St. Louis region, the fear is that the continuing dispute will cause non-union contractors to flood into the area, putting in jeopardy the jobs of 30,000 construction workers in the region. Construction unemployment is over 30 percent in St. Louis.

The dispute has also spilled over into nearby southern Illinois, where IBEW members of Local 649 staged a protest in June at a Wal-Mart store being constructed by the carpenters and Local 57.

Mark Ayers, president of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department, told a crowd of 3.000 construction workers at a rally that included the international presidents of eight crafts: “”We cannot and we will not tolerate efforts to steal work from other trades.”

Local 1 has launched an advertising blitz in the region, including billboards, radio ads and the web site (www.local57facts.com). The ads publicize Local 1’s experience, safety record and five- year apprentice training program.

There is a strong possibility that what is happening in St. Louis may be repeated in several other cities across the country, and in other crafts as well.

Carpenters’ President Seeks to Change Industry

The labor leader responsible for raiding the electricians is Douglas McCarron, who has been president of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters since 1995 He has been trying to restructure the construction industry on industrial, rather than craft, lines.

McCarron says that under his plan, labor costs would be much lower, and a unified work force, like in the auto industry, could be supplied to contractors in a more efficient manner. His union built a $100 million training complex in Las Vegas, Nevada, and also has numerous training centers throughout the U.S.

McCarron left the AFL-CIO in 2003, calling its organizing record a failure. In 2005, he joined the seven-union coalition, Change to Win, but he was forced to leave in 2009 because of jurisdictional raiding. The Carpenters, with 550,000 members, operate as an independent union, tightly controlled by its ambitious president.

McCarron, 60, was the only major labor leader to support President George Bush in his election campaigns. He was also involved in the ULLICO insider stock- trading scandal and had to return the profits he made on that deal.

In retaliation, the AFL-CIO, at its 2009 convention, passed a resolution that establishes a “Carpenters’ Organizing Committee.” The resolution states: “Upon the recommendation of the Building and Construction Trades Department, the president of the AFL-CIO is authorized to issue a charter or certificate of affiliation to the Carpenters’ Organizing Committee.”

Since carpenters and electricians have to work together on construction sites, not only in St. Louis but elsewhere, the possibility of physical conflict between them is a source of concern.

Even worse, it could trigger a jurisdictional war within the construction industry, at a time when united action is an important key to labor’s future. There seems to be no respected mediator on the horizon who is willing and able to deal with the conflict.

Craft unionism has been an entrenched feature of the construction industry that has endured even with the advent of industrial unionism and the CIO. The crafts will fiercely resist changes in their traditional jurisdiction.

But has the time come for structural changes in the industry? We think it’s a worthy subject for debate.—Harry Kelber

LaborTalk will be posted here on December 17, 2010 and on our two web sites: (www.laboreducator.org) and (www.laborsvoiceforchange.org).