JOB CONTROL :
how contractors, and BAs, use their control over your livlihood to dominate the UBCJABy Gregory A. Butler, local 608 carpenter
I . AT WILL EMPLOYEES:
One of the main differences between unionized construction workers, and our union brothers and sisters in other industries, is our total lack of job security. Unlike other union members, and similar to non union workers, we are what is technically called "at will employees", that is, we can be fired or laid off at any time, for any reason, or no reason. And, we have no legal recourse in our agreements to challenge such terminations.
And, to make matters worse, our own unions administer a hiring hall system that, in theory, is supposed to fairly distribute employment opportunities in our hypercyclical industry, but, in practice, acts as a sort of union label temp agency, ever ready to supply extra labor to a contractor at a moments notice if they should chose to discharge us.
In some ways, our non union brothers and sisters have more job security than we do. If their employers discharge them, they have to go through the crapshoot of hiring from the Help Wanted Ads or LaborReady, and having to train the replacement workers, wheras our employers know if they call the hall, they will be able to get skilled labor. In fact, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America [UBCJA] has actually used this pool of temp labor in the hiring halls as a hook to encourage rat contractors to sign up with the union.
Some of the unions do at least have some worker protections built into their hiring hall systems. The International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Blacksmiths, Iron Ship Builders, Forgers and Helpers of America [IBB] for example, require that all hiring of construction Boilermakers be from their halls. And, at least in New York, local 3 of the International Brotherhod of Electrical Workers [IBEW], requires that 90% of all hiring be out of the Joint Board hiring hall run by the local and the employers association.
But for some trades, like the Laborers, and the Carpenters, it is a different story.
In the New York District Council of Carpenters [NYDCofC], for example, on paper, 50% of the crew on any job, including the shop steward, must be from the hall. The foreman and the other half of the crew can be anybody the boss wants to hire, as long as they are in the union or will join within 7 days.
At best, this system created a two tier union, divided between company men, who had more or less full time jobs, and local men/women, who were bulk labor brought in to bang a job out, and who would be discarded as soon as the job got done.
The "Fifty Fifty" system made this class of company men peons to an employer, in many cases willing to rat out their brother and sister carpenters, work for less than scale, or work union by day, scab by night or on weekends.
On the other end, while the hall enabled those of us who didn't have a deal with a company to get employment, it also created a system wherby the Buisness Agents could, and did, use employment as a tool to buy the votes and support of carpenters, and punish dissidents.
Today, 50/50 has been all but eliminated, and it may not be in the next contracts negotiated by the NYDCofC with the employers associations. Which makes contractor control of members, and BA job manipulation, an even graver threat.
II. ON THE BENCH, OR ON YOUR KNEES :
In the heyday of the 50/50 system, the local men/women would sign the list when they got laid off. When their number got high enough, they would, in the Manhattan locals Westside Carpenters local 608, Eastside Carpenters local 257 and Upper East Side local 135 [257 and 135 are now local 157], report to the hall every morning with their tools. Then they would be dispatched to work, supposedly based on where their number was on the list. The locals in the outer boros and the specialty locals generally dispatched carpenters by phone.
However, in practice, the best local jobs never made it into the dayroom.
In every local, there were, and still are, a select clique of members, who would get the good jobs, like being a steward on a hirise concrete or hirise sheetrock job. It was not an accident that a select pool of members got the best jobs the locals could provide, but a concious political strategy on the part of the BAs.
In some locals, like 608 and what is now 157, for generations, the same people, and their sons, cousins and other relatives, have been getting first crack at the best jobs. And, this favoritism isn't free, of course. The price is complete political loyalty to the political machines that run these locals. These guys are the human social power base that keeps the same people in office year after year.
And, those who are too vocal in their opposition were punished by denial of jobs. Or, by intimidation by those who the BAs took care of.
But, the best jobs never got anywhere near the hiring halls. The contractors controled those opportunities. The steady jobs, the more or less permanent jobs, in our industry, were the exclusive preserve of company men.
And, there was a catch.
Although some got to be company men because of their carpentry skills, and their ability to run jobs quickly and efficiently, others got in with companies because they were related to somebody, or because of connections, either with the contractor, the BAs or
, others became company men because of their willingness to rat out their brothers and sisters and still others became company men due to their willingness to work for less than scale and not recieve stamps. In any case, a large pool of carpenters came to exist who's first loyalty was, not to their union, but to a particular contractor. That loyalty in turn was transferred to the machines in the locals and the DC, who in turn made it their buisness to keep the contractors happy at all costs.
III . WAITIN' BY THE PHONE :
Since the trusteeship imposed by UBC General President Douglass McCarron in 1996, things have changed a little bit. But not much for the better.
The in person hiring hall has been replaced with an over the phone list. But, the employers, although technically still bound by the 50/50 rule, in practice, can evade it two ways.
1) they can request specific carpenters off the list who have worked for them before, no matter how many other carpenters are on the list ahead of that person. The requestee is, technically, a "local man/woman", but actually is a company man. The only carpenter who can't be requested is the steward, leading to a situation I frequently encounter, where I am the only carpenter on the job who is a bona fide local man.
or
2) they can straight up evade the list, and either call for nobody from the hall, or just ask for a steward. Some contractors in the architectural metals and glass industry are under International Agreements that explicitly allow this, and the NYDCofC's own scaffold agreement and Manufacturing Woodworkers Association agreement, also explicitly permits this. Even for the contractors under the Independent Building Construction, Association of Wall Ceiling and Carpentry Industries, Metropolitan Drywall Contractors, Cement League of Greater New York, NYS Chapter of the Associated General Contractors or other agreements that still have 50/50 language can safely violate 50/50. The reason ? In practice, neither the locals or the DC bother to enforce 50/50 violations anymore.
This strengthens the hook that contractors have in their company men, and expands the number of carpenters who have to get a connection with a company, at any cost, to keep working. Which not only creates a wider group of carpenters who can be forced to work for cash, but also creates a larger pool of carpenters who are politically dominated by their employers.
Symptomatic of this, when former Brooklyn Carpenters local 926 President Salvester "Little Sal" Zarzana was running for Executive Secretary Treasurer of the NYDCofC last year, he apealed to THE CONTRACTORS for support, namely the Association of Wall Ceiling and Carpentry Industries. He told the bosses, if they told their company men to vote for him, he would grant them the $ 5 an hour pay cut for sheetrockers that they have wanted for the last couple of years. The appeal didnt work, Mike Forde won the election, [he presumibly had his own, more low key, deal in place with Wall Ceiling].
On paper, the BAs no longer have any role in job referral, which was a major issue in last year's election. Mike and Little Sal both promised that jobs [and backdoor deals] would return to the halls. Also, on the downlow, there is a thriving backdoor dispatch system in at least 4 locals.
In Westside, Uptown and Bronx Carpenters local 608, and Eastside Carpenters local 157, the same BA's pets who used to get jobs from the backdoor under the old system can be seen hanging out at the hall with their tools on any given weekday, waiting to be sent to jobs that were never reported to the list. In New York/New Jersey Dockbuilders local 1456, while members sit on the list, special people call the hall and get sent out. In Brooklyn Carpenters local 926, there is a special twist. The BAs friends get sent out to NON UNION JOBS, especially at JFK airport, which isn't even in 926's territory, but is in Queens Carpenters local 45's country. A double breasted contractor called Arrowstar is a special benificiary of local 926's pipeline of cash money men.
And for those who work off the list, the local men and local women, it means an even longer wait for work, 1,400 people on the list this week, and less hours once you actually get a job.
And, the domination of the political life of our local unions by a political machine based on a small clique who pay the price of political servitude to contractors and BAs to go to the head of the line for jobs.
This is a critical issue for rank and file carpenters, that, so far, none of the political factions, old guard or reform, to address.
IV. WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE :
I have put out some proposals on what needs to happen to our job referral system, on the GANGBOX : CONSTRUCTION WORKERS NEWS SERVICE website ; CONTRACT 2001 http://www.geocities.com/gangbox/contract2001.html and SOME BYLAW AND OUT OF WORK LIST CHANGES WE NEED IN THE NYDCofC http://www.geocities.com/gangbox/downbylaw.html
But, to summarize, the old 50/50 system, and the current system, both need to be scrapped.
We need a system wherby the contractors would hire all their labor except for foremen, from the list. The number of foremen should be capped at 10% of the workforce. And the list itself needs to be taken away from the BAs, and the council bureaucrats, and administered by elected dispatchers. The process needs to be transparent, with the list and who got dispatched posted daily in the DC, the halls, and accessible by phone or online.
Once the carpenters get sent out, we should discard the system where local carpenters are just sent out for a job and can be cut at any time, or, at best, when the job is done. The contractors should be required to take all their carpenters from job to job, and, if a company needs to cut it's crew, they should do their layoffs the way almost all other unionized employers do, by seniority. In other words, last hired, first laid off. Also, all but the smallest contractor shoud be required to have a full time general shop steward on the payroll, so as to guarantee that they follow the hiring rules.
We need to also abolish the system where a contractor can fire a carpenter at will, and replace it with a sytem where a contractor can only lay off somebody if there is a lack of work situation,and the layoff has to hit the least senior carpenter first. As for getting fired, it should be for cause only, with the employee suspended with pay until an arbitrator is able to review the case and see if it's a legit discharge.
Also, so as to not perpetuate the system that exists now, where a select few get the best shots at work, and there are a lot of carpenters left behind, we need to set up rules that would guarantee a fair proportion of the work goes to minorities, women, older carpenters, and apprentices.
The sad fact is, the current leadership isn't going to fight for this, nor is much of the opposition, because of their base in the old job referral system, but this is exactly what the rank and file carpenter needs in this union.
Thats it for now.
Be union, work safe.