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| Our position of advocating for "fair and equitable" trade in lumber and wood products has been a long-standing position of the union. The UBC, for example, worked on and supported the bi-lateral trade negotiations in 1996 that produced the five-year Softwood Lumber Agreement. That agreement has helped protect the jobs and livelihoods of UBC members and has not imposed hardship on Canadian industry or its workforce, and has in no way had an adverse impact on UBC members in Canada. Our decision to join the countervailing and anti-dumping cases when the Soft Lumber Agreement expired is an extension of that long term policy. It is neither a change in direction, nor should it be considered, an affront to our Canadian members. The UBC objective, regarding lumber and wood products trade is to achieve a long-term, mutually acceptable solution through trade negotiations. Fraternally, Douglas J. McCarron, General President (link) |
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| Every attempt to convince the Carpenters to re-affiliate has failed, despite extensive good-faith efforts by the President and other officers of the AFL-CIO and by the leadership of the building trades unions. In February 2003, the Executive Council unanimously instructed the President of the AFL-CIO to seek, once more, a reconsideration of this position by the Carpenters. These attempts failed. This disaffiliation now causes significant problems for the construction unions and for the Building Trades Department, because they must choose between enforcing the requirements of the AFL-CIO constitution and causing enormous discord at the job sites, or permitting the Carpenters to continue to violate the basic principles of trade union solidarity. Executive Council Actions (link) |
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| Our councils are a representative democracy, not unlike the system that brings each of you to the House of Representatives. Within the council, delegatesdebate and decide policy. Their decisions are then implemented by an administrative structure that’s accountable. Under our previous structure, inattention, comfort with the status quo, and personal interest resulted in ineffectiveness at best, and too often squelched debate. While the direct democracy of the local union hall which some of our critics insist on is a democratic ideal... in practice, the system too frequently resembled ward healing at its worst. Subcommittee on Employer-Employee Relations U.S. House of Representatives (link) |
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due to uptight assholes at the 4 dummies company this archive page no longer maintained
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