PLATFORM
CARPENTERS FOR A STRONGER UNION, New York City
by Gregory A. Butler, local 608 carpenter
There is a crisis in the carpenters union in New York City. A lot of us don't see it, since we're working right now, but the next downturn in work will show us very dramatically. And, these problems have been with us for a long time. I'm going to talk about some of the problems, and some ideas for solutions.
1. "IS IT REALLY A 'BROTHERHOOD' IF SOME GUYS MAKE $100,000 A YEAR AND SOME GUYS ONLY MAKE $20,000 ?"
I think the biggest problem we have is that our union is divided into company men and local men, some "brothers" [and "sisters"]have very well paying full time jobs in our profession, and some other "brothers" and "sisters" have what is basically a day labor job, one step above being a temp.
In a real way, we have two unions, seperate and unequal. Even in good times, like now, the local men and women just get to work on a halfway regular basis, and still spend days home, and the company men get OT every day. What kind of "union" is that?
A lot of our non union brothers and sisters actually work more regularly than some union carpenters ! This is ridiculous ! How can we attract the non union carpenter to the union if we can't even give all our members some kind of job security. The kind of basic job security that most American workers take for granted.
2. UNION DAY LABOR
The basic problem is that union carpenters, and union construction workers generally, lack some basic union protections.
We do not have a seniority system, and our employers can fire us at any time for any reason, or for no reason. In other words, we are what the Taft Hartley act calles "at will employees". That is , we work as long as the boss wants us and the contractor can fire us at his will. We share this employment status with non union workers, and it sets us apart from the vast majority of union members.
And, it makes it really hard to stand up to the boss, since he can fire you on the spot, and unlike most union workers, there really is no recourse to the courts or the union to getting the job back.
Also, even for the company men, they can be fired on the spot also, even if they've been with a company for years. For example, in 1992, Nastasi-White decided that, since work was really slow, that they'd get rid of all their old, slow company men, who couldn't hump rock as fast as the young guys.
So they laid off every company man who was over 55, no matter how long they'd loyally worked for Thomas Nastasi. And, this was perfectly legal under our union contract! This couldn't legally happen in any other unionized industry!
3. JOB CONTROL
From what I have been told by the older guys, there once was a time when most carpenters worked most of the season with one outfit, and only got cut around November.
Apparantly, in the '50's, the union got into the buisness of getting jobs for members, and over the years down to today, more and more members came to depend on the hall for work. At some point, a rule was even put in that required half the jobs on a site go to the local men.
But, a lot of our B.A.'s used their control over the members livelihoods for political gain, and began to play games with the list. A patronage machine was born, a machine that dominated us for many years.
Now, our "great leader" Doug McCarron wants to get the union out of the employment buisness, and put us completely at the mercy of the contractors who have denied most of us full time employment in the trade in the first place.
Obviously, this is a life or death issue to the working carpenter. Especially as our benifits, vacation, annuity and pension are tied to how many hours we actually work.
4. A FULL TIME JOB FOR EVERY CARPENTER
This probably sounds pretty radical to most carpenters. Which is kind of sad, that asking that we get something that most non union workers take for granted is an extreme idea in our industry.
But, the fact is, the contractors, and the billionaire developers and building owners that stand behind them, could easilly afford to do this. Here's how:
Instead of hiring us for the day, and then being able to cut us at will, and only taking their company men from job to job, the contractors should be required to hire exclusively from the hall, and take ALL their carpenters from job to job.
The only layoffs should be when the company needs to reduce it's overall citywide manpower, and then should be by senority, in other words, last carpenter hired, first carpenter laid off. This is how it's done in every other unionized industry.
Beyond lack of work, the only reason a carpenter should be fired is for good cause. The only legitimate causes for discharge should be theft, arson, violence on the job, sexual harassment of a co worker or failure to show up for work or call in sick for 5 consecutive days.
Also, the carpenter should have an opportunity to contest the discharge in arbitration, and should be kept on the job unless the termination is found to be justified. (The Teamsters have this at UPS, they call it "innocent until proven guilty").
Contractors should have the option to control the hiring of 10% of their workforce, in other words their foremen and supers (the electricians have this, they call these workers "basic men"). The other 90% should be from off the list, with the union designating job stewards for each site.
To spread job opportunities fairly, each company should be required to have one out of every 6 of their carpenters be apprentices (and not just 1st and 2nd years, but 3rds and 4ths also), one out of every 3 carpenters be minority, one out of every 20 be female and, so companies don't discriminate against the older brothers and sisters who supposedly work "too slow", one out of every 10 be over 55. (local 3 actually has the last requirement in their contract).
And, brothers and sisters from locals outside the city should be allowed to work here, but with one New York carpenter for every one carpenter from the North New Jersey Regional Council or the Suburban New York Regional Council, and two New York carpenters for every carpenter from any other UBC local union. But of course, the brothers and sisters from out of town should have the same protection that New Yorkers would have.
5. UNEMPLOYMENT
Even under this system, there would still be unemployment in our industry, especially during the slow part of the year, which for most carpenters is November to March.
So, we should set up some kind of supplemental unemployment system, that would pay carpenters the equivilent of their weekly pay, less what they get from unemployment.
This isn't as radical as it sounds. The electricians have something like this, it's called the "B fund". The longshoremen in New York harbor have what is called the "Guaranteed Annual Income", which means they either get 8 hours of work 5 days a week, or they get paid for the hours. They are guaranteed 2,000 hours a year and have had this since 1964. And the members of the United Auto Workers at GM, Ford and Chrysler also have a supplemental unemployment benifit. So why can't we?
6. ORGANIZING
A lot of union carpenters in New York don't realize this, but we are a minority in our trade. Nationally, only 300,000 of America's 2 million carpenters carry a UBC book, and even here, only 20,000 of the about 40,000 working carpenters in the city are in the union. And that non union percentage gets higher every year.
And since these workers make about $10 to $15 an hour against our $30.97, and we have a $20 an hour benifit package, and they don't, inevitably our wages will be pulled down to their level.
But what can we do. Blame the non union brothers and sisters, or try to drive them out? Or, organize them?
Well, McCarron's approach to organizing obviously doesn't work. Trying to sign up non union contractors one at a time, or trying to talk the non union guys into quitting their jobs to join the union is not effective. Especially since many non union carpenters have more or less steady jobs with their bosses, a situation that, as we know, most of us don't have.
But here's someting that might work. When the UBC was first organized in the 1880's they used to organize by marching around the city, going to every job, and, if that job didn't pay union scale and have an 8 hour day, stop the job and get the carpenters to walk off the site and join the march.
In more recent times, I'm sure we're all familliar with the coalition. They go around in busses, and if a job isn't integrated, stop work until it is. A lot of the Black, Latino and Chinese brothers and sisters wouldn't be in the union except for the coalition.
So, I think we can take a page from their book.
We could set up flying squads of carpenters, union and non union, and go around to jobsites. If the job is non union, we could just shut it down. In a very short period of time, the bosses of the 20,000 non union carpenters could be signed up, so everybody in our trade in this town would be getting union scale and benifits.
Also, to protect our union's jurisdiction over cabinetmaking shops, lumber mills, furniture factories and building materials manufacturing, we should go back to the old rule that no carpenter material would be installed unless it had the UBC union label on it.
This way, not only would we force non union manufacturers to go union, we would also force shops that have sweetheart low wage union contracts to sign real union contracts with real union wages.
For example, the only shop in New York that makes metal studs, Super Stud Inc., has a $5.65/hr "contract" with the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union! So, can we really call their products union made?
Also we need to return to the principle of not crossing picketlines. Under no circumstances should union carpenters work in any building that is subject to a strike or lockout of other trades or of the workers who regularly work there.
In situations where our members are working side by side with non union workers from other trades, or in buildings with non union janitorial, building maintenance or security staff,we should make every effort to assist those workers in joining the appropriate union of their craft.
And, union carpenters should only unload material from trucks that are driven by members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Remember, for many years, our industry stayed organized in large part because Teamsters refused to haul into scab jobs. Now, that much of the freight industry workforce have been forced to work non union, it's time to return the favor.
7. UNION DEMOCRACY
But, to be able to make these ideas happen, we need this United Brotherhood to be led by the brothers and the sisters. It isn't now, and hasn't been for a long time.
Many officers havn't been on their tools in a long time, and, even for those who are just off the jobsite, the salaries and perks are too high, and the terms are too long.
Our union officers should make the same wage and get the same benifits that a journeyman carpenter working 52 weeks a year would, no $150,000 year salaries, no Lincoln Town Cars, no junkets. Also, one office per person, no doubling up titles. And, all elected officials, from board member, to Buisness Agent, on up to the General President, should serve 1 year terms, with a 3 term limit.
The idea is that, if you are going to go back on your tools, you aren't going to mess things up because you are going to have to work under those conditions yourself. The West Coast Longshoremen's union has those rules for their local officers.
The idea of a delegates council is good, but:
1). All the delegates should be working carpenters, not officers.
2). The council needs real power, it shouldn't just be a rubber stamp for the officers.
3). The meetings need to be open to any member, and the monthly minutes should be published in "the Carpenter". No behind closed door deals.
Also, the delegates, between meetings, should have some kind of official duties, so they don't just become figureheads. I would suggest they could be assigned as general shop stewards to the bigger contractors, and on the bigger sites, so as to keep things on the up and up. Also, they could be the bus captains for the flying squads of organizers that would shut down non union jobs.
8. THE CONTRACT
And, most importantly, the contracts we work under shouldn't become effective until we have had a referendum vote. And, every member should get a copy of the contract IN FULL at least 3 weeks before we vote on it. In the past, we didn't see the contract until AT LEAST A YEAR after the District Council officers signed it, and then, it was all but impossible to get a copy unless you were a steward.
Also, all the various different contracts with the Association of Wall, Celing and Carpentry Contractors, the Metropolitan Drywall Association, the Cement League of Greater New York, the General Contractors Association ect. should be combined into one master agreement, binding on all the associations, the independent contractors, the city and the trade show contractors.
There should also be only 3 basic journeymen rates: full journeymen scale for carpenters, an 80% of journeymen rate for cabinetmakers in the shops and full time maintenance carpenters, and a 110% of journeyman rate for our brothers and sisters in the more dangerous divisions of our trade, like the timbermen, millwrights and dockbuilders. The apprentice rates, of course, would continue to be 40%,50%,65% and 80% of the appropriate journeyman rate.
We also should get time and a half for all hours after 7 worked in a day, with double time for all hours worked after 7:30 pm and before 7 am on a weekday,and for all hours worked on saturdays, sundays and legal holidays. And, like everybody else, we should get paid for the holidays.
All active and retired members, and their families, should be automatically eligible for benifits. There should be no connection between hours worked and benifits recieved or pension eligiblilty. For too long we have had a benifit fund that everybody pays into, but that so many local men and local women don't get to collect from.
Anybody who is employed in, unemployed but activily seeking work in, disabled from or retired from our trade should get full medical, surgical, optical, dental and prescription benifits. Pension eligibility should be tied to the number of years a member was working in or unemployed but actively seeking work in the trade. The annuity and vacation fund should continue unchanged.
8. CONCLUSION
Well, you might say, these are great ideas, but how do we get there?
That's the hard part. For many, many years, a little crew ran our district council and our locals, keeping most members on the outside looking in. They did the thinking, made the policies, and ,if we were lucky, we worked. If we got on the bad side of a company, or the local, or times were bad, maybe we didn't. But we , the working members, didn't have anything to do with the big picture.
Then McCarron came along, and made things even less democratic. The ultimate goal of our international officers is to have a totally employer controlled jobsite, just like our non union brothers and sisters suffer under.
No hiring hall, steward system powerless, and our pay almost as low as the unrepresented carpenter's.
But the only people who can change this is us, the working carpenter. We have to rebuild this union, stronger, better, and more democratic, and we have to do it from the ground up. That's the way this union was originally built 120 years ago, and we have to do it again. It won't be easy, but the alternative is a lot worse.
email Gangbox at gangbox@excite.com