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McCarron's map

 
read the full text at uniondemocracy.org

In rejecting the appeal of the seven complaining Carpenters, the Department of Labor held that the New England Council was simply an "intermediate" body that could elect officers by vote of delegates because its affiliated locals play "a significant role in dealing with their members.'" In this, the DOL ignores reality. Locals no longer function as effective labor organizations representing their members in collective bargaining. Their role in the New England Council --- as in all the Carpenter regional councils --- is now mainly administrative or clerical. The DOL decision completely ignores the facts of modern life in the Carpenters union.

After Douglas McCarron was elected president of the Carpenters union, the union was drastically reorganized throughout the United States and Canada into a new centralized, authoritarian structure. Local unions were regrouped into geographically sprawling regional councils, which are armed with extensive authority over a multitude of affiliated local unions. The structure and distribution of powers in the New England Regional Council of Carpenters are prescribed by that overall plan.

The Department of Labor accepts the union's designation of the New England Council as an authentic intermediate organization on the ground that the affiliated locals still have some significant independent role. But that is a constitutional fiction. Actually the "locals" have been turned into powerless administrative shells. Moreover, as a consequence of this reorganization, members have been stripped of many basic democratic rights.

Local unions are now impotent bodies. Their main source of money has been cut off. They can establish and receive only the monthly dues paid by their members, and even that right is subject to council approval. However, the main source of revenue in this union, as in most of the construction trades, is the work tax. All working members must pay a fixed percentage of their gross pay to the union; none of that goes to the local; it all goes directly into the council treasury. In any event, there's not much locals are permitted to do with whatever money they do have. Locals are forbidden to pay salaries to their elected local officers. They can't hire lawyers. They can only hire and pay clerical help but no union staffers, presumably picnics and dances are legal. From workers' collective bargaining organizations, locals have been downgraded into social clubs and fraternal lodges. Without major resources, without any full time paid officers locals can hardly exert real power in the international union.

All collective bargaining and the negotiation of contracts are under council jurisdiction. All stewards and business agents are appointed by the council. Until the filing the federal suit in this case, members had no right to vote on contracts. Only after this suit was filed did the top brass; under pressure, relent; the rules were modified to provide for membership ratification.

Delegates elected by the local unions do select a council executive board; and the council rules do list some limited powers for E-board members. And the local delegates do elect the top official, the executive secretary treasurer. However, the council structure is carefully designed to make all delegates and all local officers subservient to one authoritarian top officer: the executive secretary treasurer (EST).

The EST alone can hire and fire all council clerical employees. This power is unlimited, subject to no other union institution. No one can hold any paid union staff position without the EST's permission. The rules provide that EST's staff choices are subject to executive board approval, but in practice that limitation is meaningless. Remember that none of the delegates, executive board members, or local officers can hold any paid union job without the approval of the EST. It is obvious who is the master and who is the servant.

If no member of Congress and no elected public representative of states or cities could hold any paid office in government without the approval of the President of the United State, what would be the fate of American democracy? Yet, that spirit now permeates the Carpenters union. This is the system that has been validated by the Department of Labor and upheld, with misgivings, by this appeals court. This decision does more than undermine Carpenters' rights; it undermines the LMRDA.
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'From the website of the Association for Union Democracy. www.uniondemocracy.org. Email: aud@igc.org. 104 Montgomery Street, Brooklyn, New York, 11225; USA; 718-564-1114'

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The BC Provincial Council of Carpenters received a $60,000 cheque from the UBCJA for costs awarded in the 10B lawsuit that BC Carpenters won last year. The judgment stated that International President Douglas McCarron acted in bad faith when he attempted to seize the BC Carpenters� books and records.

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