Holding the Union Together When the Economy Is Coming Apart
Erlich, Mark
ARTICLES Holding the Union Together When the Economy Is Coming Apart MARK ERLICH I joined the Carpenters Union in Portland, Oregon, in the spring of 1975. At the time, I was one of twenty-two...
...When Ronald Reagan broke the air traffic controllers' strike in 1981, it only made plain what everyone inside organized labor already knew, that government was not neutral in fights between unions and employers...
...The ballot question was part of a growing national attack on prevailing-wage laws— longstanding federal (Davis-Bacon Act) and state legislation that established union wages as the standard rates on publicly funded construction projects...
...The Council has signed more than 1,800 new contractors to union contracts, the quality of skill training and member education has been upgraded, benefit funds have been modernized, and members can now access information electronically...
...For the vast majority of workers, incomes have either stagnated or declined, and the only reason family income has risen slightly is that there are so many more dual-income-earning households...
...The cultural attitudes toward unions and working people have changed dramatically since I joined the union...
...Political partnerships are an essential part of the fabric of union construction...
...And we regularly call on them to hold signs, phone bank, and knock on doors for candidate campaigns...
...In Boston-area building trades unions of that era, no one beat incumbents...
...Short-term contract gains sometimes have to be balanced against the long-term health of an industry and organizational structures need to be streamlined without losing member loyalty and participation...
...In today's volatile climate, they are frustrated and susceptible to the general anti-incumbent mood, as demonstrated by Scott Brown's January 2010 Senate victory...
...In 1986, I completed With Our Hands, a book on the history of carpenters in Massachusetts...
...I supported myself as a carpenter and pursued my other interests outside of work—political activism, community organizing, teaching, and writing...
...Fifty years ago, CEOs would proudly tell approving Rotary Club audiences that they had never laid off an employee...
...Seeing the bus pull up, one member of the leadership slate whispered under his breath, "The fucking Jew brought down the fucking Frogs...
...The unions that are likely to survive, let alone thrive, are the ones that have taken a hard look in the mirror and made the kinds of difficult adjustments that reflect contemporary realities...
...The total hours worked by our members—our primary index of economic activity and generator of revenues— has dropped by 37 percent in two years...
...The concept of "class warfare," once a phrase that rolled off the tongues of labor radicals, is now used by conservatives to mock anyone who suggests that the distribution of income in the United States may be unfair...
...on the other, they resented that it gave notoriety to someone outside the leadership group...
...A typical day might include convincing a pin-striped developer to build with union labor, lobbying politicians on a piece of legislation or project-permitting vote, addressing the financial status of the local and the union's extensive benefit funds, making sure that the union jobs in the area were proceeding according to the contract, and assisting nonunion carpenters hoping for help in situations where they were getting late or no wage payments at all...
...We work with union contractors to deliver high-quality training and benefit programs...
...Building trades unions were facing mounting challenges from an emerging nonunion construction industry, but few leaders addressed or even recognized the problem...
...At the same time, the recession of 1989-1992 clobbered the industry and slashed revenues for building trades unions...
...Some of the veterans were more skilled at rough carpentry, some at finish work...
...Union contractors identify with their nonunion counterparts as business colleagues, but insist that the unions do everything in our power to eliminate the threat of nonunion competition...
...The impact of long-term chronic unemployment, averaging about 30 percent, is grinding and has taken a severe toll on our members' lives...
...After a few years in the trade, I had met enough of the local's members to enjoy the social aspect of union meetings but was increasingly frustrated with the limited perspective provided from the podium...
...However, in the November midterm elections, we focused on the issue of jobs, turned out hundreds of members for weeks of campaign activities, and helped New England serve as a firewall against the national Republican landslide...
...The backsliding distressed me and others who had championed the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transform our union...
...McCarron's dramatic upheaval dovetailed with my sense that there was a need for a broad-based approach that made organizing its central priority...
...Construction, as a locally provided service, would seem to be immune to the outsourcing of jobs that has decimated the country's manufacturing base...
...Once again, I talked to every delegate, making the case that we couldn't afford to lose our momentum and that challenging an incumbent was worth the risk...
...We upheld the value of the New England Carpenters' endorsement and cemented our reputation for putting troops on the ground...
...The influx of thousands of hopeful workers—some documented, mostly not— who crossed the Mexican border every week had already fanned out across the Southern and Western states and now joined immigrants from Central America, Latin America, and Eastern Europe to work on construction projects in New England...
...Monthly union meetings were short on information and long on alcohol and opportunities to catch up with old friends...
...Our members vote on pragmatic, rather than ideological, grounds, hoping for the assurance of a steady flow of jobs...
...In the bluish states of New England, registered Democratic union carpenters outnumber Republicans by a 47 percent to 8 percent margin...
...I could have a positive and progressive impact on construction activity in the four cities and towns that Local 40 covered, but the industry had outgrown the rationale for the locals' limited geographical boundaries...
...Today, goaded by a hostile media, even those whose leaky boats might be lifted by a rising tide resent union victories...
...We have worked closely with state agencies in all six states to upgrade wage enforcement procedures, and they have agreed not to share the information we provide with federal immigration authorities...
...Initially, much of my time was taken up by the dozens of members who were out of work and out of hope...
...As distant as they may feel from the levers of power, our members have learned that their jobs have a political component and recognize the necessity to be engaged in the politics of their cities and towns...
...The leaders had been found with their hands in the union's cookie jar...
...In the Carpenters Union, power had always rested at the bottom...
...For the most part, the members accepted their union's focus on punishment of exploitative employers rather than undocumented immigrants...
...The economy was heating up, revenues were climbing, and the consolidation of all the locals' treasuries gave us ample funds to hire new staff and generate new programs...
...Union leaders had ceded authority to the No on Question 2 campaign staff because they knew they were in over their heads, but once normalcy returned, they resisted further change...
...Fifty years ago, nonunion workers frequently welcomed the successes of unionized workers, recognizing that their own compensation was set in relation to union scales...
...Ultimately, power in our industry does not rest in the hands of our bargaining partners...
...Fortunately for all of us, the capitalistic system worked again...
...On Election Day, tens of thousands of workers blanketed the polling stations in a final push that resulted in a remarkable 58 percent to 42 percent defeat of the measure...
...No one in the crews he was visiting spoke English...
...Public construction spending is limited, and the private commercial real estate market is dead, because property values have declined and banks still refuse to lend...
...Dynamic and controversial, McCarron argued that the organization's century-old structure no longer reflected the realities of the industry in which its members worked...
...In response, we hired a number of bilingual organizers and developed a three-hour membership education program—BUILD (Build Union Initiative and Labor Dignity)—that argued that our union's organizing mission succeeded only if we advocated for all carpenters in an effort to create a more level playing field...
...The squeeze on the American middle class is directly correlated with the decline of the labor movement...
...In 1988, my career changed when I was plucked out of the field and asked to serve as one of the field coordinators for a campaign to defeat a referendum, Question 2, which would have repealed the state's prevailing-wage law...
...By the mid-1980s, my craft skills had grown sufficiently that I became a superintendent for a newly unionized general contractor...
...On the day of the election, I rented a bus to bring in a group of French-Canadian drywallers who had long felt disenfranchised in the local...
...Early polls indicated that the referendum would pass easily as part of the tax revolt then sweeping the nation...
...In one of the most astonishing political turnarounds I've seen, the building trades and labor hierarchy decided to turn to their most potentially potent weapon—the slumbering membership...
...Local unions determined their own destiny with little guidance or interference from above...
...On the one hand, they welcomed the recognition given the organization...
...The membership is more diverse, and the organization is active in virtually every major community, politically and with charitable donations of labor...
...Though progress has been uneven and incomplete, the New England Council's brief history is a success story...
...Our BUILD education program makes the case that activism is the only answer to the continuing threat of nonunion construction...
...In a quixotic attempt to gain bipartisan support, Barack Obama's 2009 stimulus package de-emphasized infrastructure and other job creation measures in favor of tax credits and grants to states and municipalities...
...We made clear that, regardless of job title, all staff members were to think of themselves as organizers first...
...At first, I hesitated to accept the promotion, reluctant to be separated from the crew...
...A new job was created for me at the Massachusetts Building Trades Council, but change turned out to be tougher than anticipated...
...We created a six-state collective bargaining agreement by leveraging the strength of the metropolitan Boston market to assist the weaker areas, particularly in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont...
...I benefited from a provision in the union constitution that required every local union to accept any existing member who wished to transfer locals and picked Carpenters Local 40 only because a friend of a friend was already a member...
...For the first time, the Carpenters Union's full-time representatives in the region included minorities and women, and 50 percent of our resources were devoted to organizing...
...Membership—now at 22,000—has gone up and down with the construction cycle, but the more important indicator, the union's share of the overall market, has increased from 38 percent to 65 percent...
...I looked elsewhere for those kinds of insights...
...I had a few advantages...
...Those private conversations in my office built the bonds that restored the battered spirits of the local...
...Of course, I didn't know this would happen when I started serving my apprenticeship...
...At least those industries have viable futures...
...We work with nonunion carpenters to elevate their working conditions and level the playing field across the industry...
...Not long after I joined, I moved to Boston where entry into the Carpenters locals was more difficult...
...The sense of impending doom forced reluctant union officials to embrace grassroots and coalition organizing...
...I worked on upscale restaurants, office renovations, and retail spaces with high levels of finish carpentry...
...Frankly, my being asked to serve was a sign of the political inexperience of the Massachusetts labor movement and the lack of any kind of sophisticated staff infrastructure...
...It is held by the owners, developers, and institutions that decide to use or avoid union labor when they build their projects...
...Mark Erlich is the executive secretary-treasurer of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters...
...A year later, several members approached me about running for office in my local...
...Since our job inevitably involved taking and filling the coffee orders, we all got the chance to watch and talk to every carpenter on every project to see how he approached the particular task at hand...
...But the broader challenges remain...
...Although I was an outsider, I loved being a union carpenter...
...In a delegate election, one-on-one persuasion is the most effective tool...
...Running for business manager of a local union was similar to campaigning for state representative or mayor of a small city...
...I immediately took on the governance of a 1,500-member local that had been driven into financial and ethical bankruptcy...
...I was appointed assistant to the executive secretary-treasurer and director of organizing a year after the creation of our regional council...
...By any objective indicator, unions are needed today more than ever to restore social justice and a measure of economic equality...
...We work with owners to deliver political support in the permitting process and skilled, productive labor in the construction phase...
...Free market' forces prevailed...
...Our employers are desperate for work, while our pension and health funds need infusions of cash...
...After a count that lasted into the night, I won by just nineteen votes...
...Our council is ready to take advantage of the recovery—whenever it may come...
...Independents are now at 45 percent and growing...
...Although the state's labor leaders were comfortable lobbying the State House, they knew nothing about mobilizing the membership or developing a broader strategy to influence public opinion...
...Then in 1996, newly elected general president, Doug McCarron, turned the 600,000 member United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners upside down...
...Some of our contractors are multinational players...
...There had been just two administrations in the previous thirty-three years and the first had handed the reins to the second...
...local autonomy...
...Classroom apprenticeship training was mediocre, but the on-the-job opportunity to learn a craft from gifted carpenters was endless...
...Hispanics have quickly come to make up nearly half of the nation's construction work force...
...The flush of victory led some of us to hope that the strategies of the campaign might lead to a progressive transformation of the building trades and the broader labor movement in Massachusetts...
...today a CEO who makes a similar statement would be derided as a soft-hearted and ignorant dinosaur...
...The downward pressure on wages is, nonetheless, relentless, and the current recession has re-ignited anti-immigrant sentiments as the competition for scarce jobs has increased...
...We now represent just over 12 percent of the work force...
...The internal politics were intense, because people's livelihoods were at stake, and reprisals against losing challengers were standard practice...
...My world does not follow a textbook employer-employee labor relations model...
...Three years later, the economy was recovering, the local's finances were stable, and its reputation restored in the community...
...The value outweighed the threat...
...In the face of a dysfunctional national immigration policy with no real sanctions against illegal hiring practices, employers eagerly took advantage of a work force prepared to accept what were already decreasing pay scales...
...He pursued an ambitious restructuring of the 2,000-plus local unions under the umbrella of a series of regional councils across the United States and Canada...
...Even this dismal number masks the deeply bifurcated nature of construction work in the United States today...
...We try to convince legitimate nonunion firms to sign union agreements...
...At the time, I was one of twenty-two million union members, representing nearly 29 percent of the nation's work force...
...ordinary working families...
...others are less than a generation from working with tools themselves...
...For the second time in my political career, I beat the odds...
...The issue was successfully recast as one of corporate greed vs...
...My thirty-five year tenure has coincided with one of the most dramatic transformations of America's economic and social structure...
...All of our endorsed candidates for federal and statewide offices (except in New Hampshire and Maine) prevailed...
...The new structure challenged one of the age-old tensions within the labor movement— centralized authority vs...
...A strong, socially responsible union can be the most valuable institution in a working person's life...
...I was reelected by a large margin and could reasonably have expected to play out my days in the time-honored tradition of "Business Manager for Life...
...In reality, construction wages, once the highest in the blue-collar world, dropped by 17.5 percent between 1973 and 2002...
...Since work was plentiful at the time, few had direct experience of losing jobs to immigrant carpenters...
...The individualistic notion that everyone should be an "entrepreneur" undercuts the very premise of group identity that is the foundation of any labor or community organization...
...Endorsements came from the rest of the labor movement, most elected officials, community organizations, senior groups, and, in the end, minority and women's organizations despite the historic race and gender exclusion in the building trades...
...mine was made up of descendants of immigrants from Nova Scotia and Newfoundland as well as Ireland and Italy...
...Newcomers were advised to "look, listen, and learn...
...Partnerships are, therefore, complex and fluid...
...Models for growth and revival of private sector unionism may be found in some of the service, hospitality, and retail sector unions and a few of the building trades...
...I am always amazed when I hear the suggestion that unions may have been a positive force at one time in our history but no longer serve a useful function and may actually serve as impediments to progress and change...
...At best, being a super is like conducting an orchestra, making sure all the parts fit together, coordinating the various trades harmoniously, scheduling a smooth flow, and calming panicked owners, project managers, and architects...
...We scaled back staff and programs...
...There was an Irish local in Dorchester...
...Unscrupulous contractors quickly realized the opportunities these workers presented...
...I have been the executive secretary-treasurer of the New England Council since 2005, when I ran for the top spot...
...Further, my experience in the Question 2 campaign provided me with grassroots political skills...
...Now, in my second term, I must be a manager of decline...
...My co-workers and friends lost their jobs, their homes, their marriages, and their very sense of selves...
...He is also the author of two books and numerous articles on labor history and contemporary labor issues...
...My predecessor had slowed the pace of change that had accompanied the restructuring...
...Contract negotiations are painful for both sides...
...It was my first experience with the devastation of an extended bout of unemployment for construction workers...
...Funding for my position dried up, and I returned to work as a superintendent...
...Although the shrinking number of workers paid union wages and benefits has remained somewhat secure in urban markets in the Northeast, Midwest, and West Coast, nonunion compensation has fallen through the floor, particularly in the South...
...The combination of financial mismanagement and high unemployment fueled an anti-incumbency campaign...
...I learned how to be a trade unionist from these men, how to value skill among peers, how to distinguish between good and bad foremen, and how to appreciate the integrity of a dangerous but rewarding occupation that provided a powerful sense of self-esteem in a culture that routinely devalued blue-collar workers...
...Yet for all these accomplishments, driving a union agenda—even with adequate resources and a functional structure—remains an uphill battle in twenty-first-century America...
...An energized campaign mounted a sophisticated operation of internal and external education, media exposure, and coalition building...
...As the old saying goes, "The best social program is a job...
...But globalization has come to us...
...The union was, to large degree, a father-son affair, with membership guarded as tightly as access to rent-controlled apartments in New York City...
...About a dozen years ago, one of my organizers called to tell me he couldn't carry out his assignment of talking to nonunion carpenters...
...The real division is between the job site and the office...
...As a result, we have slowed the growth of the underground economy and built strong working relations with immigrant advocacy organizations...
...When the economy fell off a cliff in the fall of 2008, it landed hardest on construction workers...
...We are faced with the legacy of a generation of withering legislative, regulatory, political, and media attacks on unions led by the Business Roundtable (originally named the Construction Users Anti-Inflation Roundtable) that have transformed our industry and the nation...
...Every apprentice learned to incorporate approaches, styles, and tricks of the trade from the older men in the crew...
...Initially, our members saw the new work force as a threat to their hard-won pay and working standards...
...But being a foreman or a super on a construction site is unlike management positions in other workplaces...
...Ethnicity reflected the area's white working-class population...
...A year later, Charles Brown, a former DuPont CEO, felt comfortable saying, "The construction industry was monopolized by the union segment with no apparent alternative in sight...
...During recessionary periods, building trades leaders function more often as priests/rabbis/social workers than labor officials...
...We suggested that the new workers were only the most recent wave of immigrants that have always populated the construction industry and we reminded our members of the discrimination against their ancestors...
...Under pressure to step down, they did what their predecessors had done—they anointed their successors...
...Economic inequality is now as high as it was before the Great Depression...
...There is no mentoring for opposition candidates who win union office...
...In the end, they welcomed the book because writing success was not a traditional path to union office...
...The locals in Massachusetts had, at least, developed a statewide collective bargaining agreement, but they rarely coordinated policies or organizing campaigns...
...The Boston locals were then almost completely white and male...
...The development of a region incorporates all of the elements that make up a community — financing, design preferences, land use, industrial development, demographic trends, and the kinds of labor practices that citizens expect...
...Today, despite substantial growth in the size of the working population, seven million fewer workers belong to unions...
...We train our members how to be involved at the local permitting level, as "citizen carpenters," where they insist that owners and developers use responsible contractors on projects seeking approvals...
...Its publication presented the leaders of my union with a dilemma...
...In many ways, construction union leaders were and are the most important officials in their members' lives...
Vol. 58 • January 2011 • No. 1
