Socialist Viewpoint

Thomas Harrington, a Boston Carpenters official who is closely associated with the rank-and-file caucus, Carpenters for a Democratic Union (CDU), was elected on September 29 to the powerful Executive Secretary-Treasurer post of the 26,000-member New England Regional Council of Carpenters. His election by secret ballot vote of council delegates, 68-65, represents a major victory for reformers in the United Brotherhood of Carpenters.

Over the past decade the carpenters union has been restructured from a network of small to moderately sized local unions into a series of large autocratic regional councils. In the restructuring, carpenters lost their right to vote directly on collective bargaining agreements and to directly elect the officials who represent them. Those powers, and others, were transferred to the centralized regional councils. The council structure is dominated by its executive secretary-treasurer who wields immense powers, including the authority to hire and fire all business agents, organizers, and representatives. No other council official receives a salary by virtue of their office. Locals, under the council system, are ceremonial shells, forbidden from spending money on attorneys or officer salaries, limited, in essence, to electing delegates to the council.

The rank-and-file’s loss of democratic rights and the imposition without warning or input from below of officials not directly accountable to the members, sparked protests nationally. In New England, the rebellion was especially pronounced, well organized, and in September, successful.

According to the International, the goal of the restructuring was to replace a system of local fiefdoms with one that would be better able to represent carpenters’ interests against building contractors that are larger and increasingly regional in scope, and would consolidate the union to match the employers’ centralization. CDU activists agree that greater centralization is needed but insist it should be accompanied by the expansion of democratic mechanisms, especially those like the direct election of officers. Instead, under the new setup, all power has been transferred away from the 26 locals to the regional council in Boston and the autocratic Executive Secretary-Treasurer is empowered to negotiate contracts, hire and fire all council staff, process grievances, and control virtually all moneys.

New England carpenters fought back. They formed CDU, carried petitions to members throughout the six New England states, demonstrated at council meetings; elected pro-democracy delegates to the council; and organized, with the Association for Union Democracy, a national rank-and-file carpenters’ rights conference. In 1999 their efforts forced the council to restore the members’ right to ratify contracts. CDU pursued a Department of Labor complaint and a federal lawsuit contending that the council should be regarded as a local, because it exercised so many functions that traditionally belonged to locals, and therefore should be required to hold elections every three years by direct vote of the members. Tom Harrington is the lead plaintiff in the suit which is pending before an appeals court.

Rank-and-file pressure to democratize

According to rank-and-file carpenters and officers, Harrington’s election resulted from a combination of factors: intense rank-and-file pressure on council delegates to democratize the council, a bristling reaction to incumbent ES-T David Bergeron’s heavy-handed wielding of his wide powers, and a fear that Bergeron’s effort to make the union more appealing to nonunion contractors by evening out wages and conditions in New England would bring down standards in Boston and other cities in the region. Also a factor was Bergeron’s close relationship with United Brotherhood of Carpenters International President Douglas McCarron, who engineered the restructuring and who raised quite a controversy when he pulled the Carpenters out of the AFL-CIO earlier in the year.

The New England reformers had to overcome formidable obstacles. Locals do elect delegates; but the EST has total unchecked authority to appoint and dismiss all organizers, business agents, and other council staff. Approximately 50 of the 133 council delegates hold appointed $50,000 plus per year positions, estimates Michael Cranmer, a delegate from Boston Local 33. Some staff had been fired for “getting on the wrong side of Bergeron,” says Cranmer.

Bergeron’s alliance with the heavy-handed McCarron earned him more enemies, suggested Cranmer, citing the example of a Connecticut business agent, Chuck Appleby, who was brought up on charges and suspended by the International for enforcing a local agreement over a national one. In that case, the local agreement had stricter language requiring contractors to hire local members before bringing in travelers. This suspension created animosity from the Connecticut delegation which may have tipped the balance against Bergeron.

Harrington, the new Executive Secretary-Treasurer, says: “Every carpenter, from those on our executive board to those putting on the tools, deserves a voice in this union and this industry.” Although much of the council structure is dictated by the International’s constitution, Harrington has pledged to operate more democratically and has indicated that he will continue to pursue the litigation that, if successful, would force the council to operate as a local, with direct secret ballot elections of officers every three years.

From the December/January issue of Union Democracy Review