CONSTRUCTION UNION CHALLENGES:
CONSTRUCTION UNION CHALLENGES: BLDG. TRADES TACKLE
DISAFFILIATION; CARPENTERS FACE LEADERSHIP RACE
http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2514&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
Press Associates, 8/22/2005
BOSTON and LAS VEGAS (PAI)--The nation’s construction unions faced two
separate challenges at conventions in Boston in mid-August and Las Vegas
in August: The AFL-CIO Building Trades Department wrestled with what to
do about two unions’ disaffiliation, while leaders of one departee, the
Carpenters, faced a leadership race. The first challenge will be met by
BCTD leaders working out the practical aspects of inter-union relations
after disaffiliation of the Carpenters from the AFL-CIO four years ago
and departure of the Teamsters last month, Building Trades President
Edward Sullivan said.
Sullivan told delegates in Boston on August 9 that “under the AFL CIO
constitution, no union is allowed to affiliate with the Building Trades
Department while choosing to remain outside the AFL CIO. That
democratically established rule applies to every union. Therefore, we
regret the leaders of the Teamsters and the Carpenters have chosen to
disaffiliate from the AFL CIO and, therefore, to leave” the department.
His remarks formally put an end to four years of on-and-off talks
between AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney and Carpenters President
Douglas McCarron over UBC’s return to the AFL-CIO. Even while the
Carpenters stayed out of the federation, they stayed in the department,
over protests from other unions, such as the Machinists.
The Teamsters and Carpenters both are members of the new “Change to Win”
coalition of seven unions that emphasize organizing in core industries
while down-grading politics. The labor federation, and Sullivan in his
speech, emphasized both.
The other Change to Win” unions are the Laborers, UNITE HERE and the
Farm Workers, who are still in the AFL-CIO, and the Service Employees
and United Food and Commercial Workers, who are not. The Laborers will
take up the disaffiliation issue at a leadership conference in
September, President Terry O’Sullivan says.
“We recognize there is a necessary interrelationship among the building
trades,” Edward Sullivan told delegates, who included Laborers’ members.
“We will have to continue to work together to ensure our differences do
not disrupt jobsites and that the important progress we have made with
contractors and owners will continue.
“We cannot afford to be fighting with each other,” he warned. “It saps
our resources and our resolve. Rather, we must turn our attention where
it belongs toward our real adversaries in the political and private
sectors--who take comfort in any sign of labor disunity.”
To achieve the goals of continued progress and calm job sites, Sullivan
said the department’s board “is focusing on ways to deal with these
pressing issues and to provide councils with additional guidance. We
will be discussing ways to offset any possible disruptions to the
industry,” he added. The Carpenters raised that issue earlier this year
by ending work agreements with two other Building Trades unions, the
Sheet Metal Workers and the Iron Workers.
Sullivan also promised delegates the Building Trades would set tough
standards for political support from unionists next year.
“When politicians from either party come knock, knock, knocking to ask
for our help and our money, before we fork over the dollars our members
worked hard to make, we should ask Democrats and Republicans alike where
they were when we needed their help--on CAFTA and Social Security and
our pension plans and health care reform and transportation and highway
construction, energy and water system funding, worker’s rights and Davis
Bacon and any number of issues critical to our members and our
industry,” he stated.
While Sullivan wrestled with the impact of the departure of the
Carpenters and Teamsters, Carpenters President McCarron faced a slate of
challengers at his union’s convention, which opened in Las Vegas on Aug. 24.
Led by Tom Lewandowski of Rockford, Ill., a 28-year UBC member and
former Business Manager and Financial Secretary-Treasurer of Local 792,
the insurgents are challenging McCarron on a platform of more union
democracy and questioning the incumbent president’s decision to withdraw
from the AFL-CIO four years ago, among other issues.
“It’s time for rank and file members to take back control of our union,”
Lewandowski said in a statement before balloting began. “Our members
should be able to vote on their representation, elect their business
agents and ratify contracts.”
Lewandowski said Carpenters district councils in Chicago, Kentucky and
the Pacific Northwest already voted not to endorse McCarron for
re-election. Lewandowski did not say whether they endorsed his slate. He
admits he has an uphill battle.
“I want to restore local union sovereignty,” he told The Labor Paper in
an interview during the AFL-CIO convention, where he was introducing
himself to delegates as an insurgent in his non-AFL-CIO union. “The
contractor base is different everywhere. Our union was built on locals
that worked with contractors in their area.”
--
Tiffany Ten Eyck
Labor Notes
7435 Michigan Ave.
Detroit, MI
313.842.6262 (work)
239.980.5771 (cell)
www.labornotes.org
DISAFFILIATION; CARPENTERS FACE LEADERSHIP RACE
http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2514&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
Press Associates, 8/22/2005
BOSTON and LAS VEGAS (PAI)--The nation’s construction unions faced two
separate challenges at conventions in Boston in mid-August and Las Vegas
in August: The AFL-CIO Building Trades Department wrestled with what to
do about two unions’ disaffiliation, while leaders of one departee, the
Carpenters, faced a leadership race. The first challenge will be met by
BCTD leaders working out the practical aspects of inter-union relations
after disaffiliation of the Carpenters from the AFL-CIO four years ago
and departure of the Teamsters last month, Building Trades President
Edward Sullivan said.
Sullivan told delegates in Boston on August 9 that “under the AFL CIO
constitution, no union is allowed to affiliate with the Building Trades
Department while choosing to remain outside the AFL CIO. That
democratically established rule applies to every union. Therefore, we
regret the leaders of the Teamsters and the Carpenters have chosen to
disaffiliate from the AFL CIO and, therefore, to leave” the department.
His remarks formally put an end to four years of on-and-off talks
between AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney and Carpenters President
Douglas McCarron over UBC’s return to the AFL-CIO. Even while the
Carpenters stayed out of the federation, they stayed in the department,
over protests from other unions, such as the Machinists.
The Teamsters and Carpenters both are members of the new “Change to Win”
coalition of seven unions that emphasize organizing in core industries
while down-grading politics. The labor federation, and Sullivan in his
speech, emphasized both.
The other Change to Win” unions are the Laborers, UNITE HERE and the
Farm Workers, who are still in the AFL-CIO, and the Service Employees
and United Food and Commercial Workers, who are not. The Laborers will
take up the disaffiliation issue at a leadership conference in
September, President Terry O’Sullivan says.
“We recognize there is a necessary interrelationship among the building
trades,” Edward Sullivan told delegates, who included Laborers’ members.
“We will have to continue to work together to ensure our differences do
not disrupt jobsites and that the important progress we have made with
contractors and owners will continue.
“We cannot afford to be fighting with each other,” he warned. “It saps
our resources and our resolve. Rather, we must turn our attention where
it belongs toward our real adversaries in the political and private
sectors--who take comfort in any sign of labor disunity.”
To achieve the goals of continued progress and calm job sites, Sullivan
said the department’s board “is focusing on ways to deal with these
pressing issues and to provide councils with additional guidance. We
will be discussing ways to offset any possible disruptions to the
industry,” he added. The Carpenters raised that issue earlier this year
by ending work agreements with two other Building Trades unions, the
Sheet Metal Workers and the Iron Workers.
Sullivan also promised delegates the Building Trades would set tough
standards for political support from unionists next year.
“When politicians from either party come knock, knock, knocking to ask
for our help and our money, before we fork over the dollars our members
worked hard to make, we should ask Democrats and Republicans alike where
they were when we needed their help--on CAFTA and Social Security and
our pension plans and health care reform and transportation and highway
construction, energy and water system funding, worker’s rights and Davis
Bacon and any number of issues critical to our members and our
industry,” he stated.
While Sullivan wrestled with the impact of the departure of the
Carpenters and Teamsters, Carpenters President McCarron faced a slate of
challengers at his union’s convention, which opened in Las Vegas on Aug. 24.
Led by Tom Lewandowski of Rockford, Ill., a 28-year UBC member and
former Business Manager and Financial Secretary-Treasurer of Local 792,
the insurgents are challenging McCarron on a platform of more union
democracy and questioning the incumbent president’s decision to withdraw
from the AFL-CIO four years ago, among other issues.
“It’s time for rank and file members to take back control of our union,”
Lewandowski said in a statement before balloting began. “Our members
should be able to vote on their representation, elect their business
agents and ratify contracts.”
Lewandowski said Carpenters district councils in Chicago, Kentucky and
the Pacific Northwest already voted not to endorse McCarron for
re-election. Lewandowski did not say whether they endorsed his slate. He
admits he has an uphill battle.
“I want to restore local union sovereignty,” he told The Labor Paper in
an interview during the AFL-CIO convention, where he was introducing
himself to delegates as an insurgent in his non-AFL-CIO union. “The
contractor base is different everywhere. Our union was built on locals
that worked with contractors in their area.”
--
Tiffany Ten Eyck
Labor Notes
7435 Michigan Ave.
Detroit, MI
313.842.6262 (work)
239.980.5771 (cell)
www.labornotes.org
posted by T. Scott Brineman at 11:38 AM
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