[gangbox] BOTTOM OF THE LIST

BOTTOM OF THE LIST....will the new federal monitor clean up the New
York District Council of Carpenters job referral system?

By Gregory A. Butler, local 608 carpenter

On March 12, United States District Judge Charles Haight, who
supervises the NYDCofC's racketeering consent decreee with the US
Department of Justice, appointed attorney Walter Mack, a partner in the
law firm of Doar, Rieck and Mack, as the special investigator in charge
of monitoring and eliminating abuses of the NYDCofCs out of work list.

In particular, Mack will focus on abuses of the shop steward system.

Specifically, he'll be looking into claims that Business Agents are,
allegedly, helping their friends get steward jobs ahead of other
carpenters on the list.

Reportedly, one of the more common scams was contractors requesting
carpenter stewards with made up skills (like "laboratory furniture
installer"), and then BAs tipping off their friends to add those bogus
"skills" to their out of work list computer profile..

Of course, the profile would be updated just in time for them to be
dispatched to that particular job, ahead of other carpenters higher up
on the list who had listed legitimate skill areas on their profile
(sheetrock, concrete, furniture, woodwork, ceilings, hardwood floors,
hardware, storefront, heavy gage framing, aluminum siding, trade show
carpentry ect).

Under the new out of work list changes that the feds persuaded the
NYDCofC to make, shop stewards now have a 30 day limit on skill changes
on the out of work list. That is, if a steward makes an addition to
his/her skills on the list on April 1, that shoppie can't be sent out
on those types of jobs until April 30.

On paper, it sounds good...but, as New York carpenters well know,
there's a lot of things that sound good on paper..but, never actually
happen out on the jobsites.

And, many New York carpenters (ESPECIALLY local men) have come to hate
the out of work list because the whole system is so God damned unfair
to the average rank and file carpenter on the bench.

Even on paper, contractors are allowed to staff their jobs with a
maximum 50% company men, and only have to hire half the crew from the
bench (this is called the "50/50 rule"). Since there are a lot more
local men/women in this union then there are company guys, in pratice,
the company men get to work all the time, while the local carpenters
have to survive on whatever hours are left over.

Beyond that, there are lots of contractors who have gotten exempted
from the 50/50 rule over the last decade or so.

The cabinet shops represented by the Manufacturing Woodworkers
Association only have to hire a shop steward from the hall, the entire
rest of the crew can be company men.

Worse yet, these company men can be entirely from Cabinetmakers local
2090...a shop local who's members only make $ 21/hr...which is $ 16 an
hour less than the $ 37/hr outside carpenters in building construction
locals like Westside Carpenters local 608 and Eastside Carpenters local
157.

Cabinetmakers also work an 8 hour straight time day, as opposed to the
7 hour day mandated in almost all NYDCofC building construction
agreements.

The Metropolitan Drywall Association have also gotten themselves exempt
from the 50/50 rule too.

And, there are many contractors in the storefront partition industry,
like Acme Architectural Walls, Steelcase Architectural Walls and
Modernfold/Styles who have "international agreements" with the United
Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America that exempt them from
hiring anyone besides a steward from the hall.

Even the contractors who are still technically covered by the 50/50
rule have been allowed to get away with hiring as few carpenters from
the list as they possibly can. This is due to lax to nonexistant
enforcement of the 50/50 rule by the NYDCofC and it's locals.

That means that the hirise concrete outfits in the Cement League of
Greater New York, the drywall contractors in the MDA's older and larger
counterpart, the Association of Wall, Ceiling and Carpentry Industries
of Greater New York, and the office furniture installation and
storefront partition contractors who work under the Independent
Building Construction Agreement often field crews that are largely
composed of company men.

This is ESPECIALLY true in furniture, where many contractors have crews
composed almost entirely of company men, and rarely hire anybody from
the hall, except for a steward. Just about the only furniture outfit
that regularly hires journeymen from the hall, other than a shoppie, is
AFD/Nationwide....and, occasionally, Vintage Corporate Services will
hire some apprentices from the list.

Which means that, even in good times, company guys get the bulk of the
work..and many of them work every day, get lots and lots of OT, while
local carpenters wait and wait for work..and, often don't even make
enough hours to keep their medical benefits.

Even in good times, when there's plenty of work, this creates an
incentive for carpenters to do whatever they have to in order to get
work..including working for cash.

And, since September 2001...we have NOT had economic good times in the
NYC building trades.

According to the New York District Council of Carpenters own figures,
the union's 20,000 active carpenters only worked 20 million hours in
2002...that's down 2 million hours from 2001.

And, of course, those hours were NOT equally distributed....if they
were, every union carpenter would have worked over 1,000 hours, and
gotten their medical plus a pension credit... But, as we all know, some
guys got way over 2,000 hours..while others languished on the list for
months...and then got their 11 days (maybe 70 or 80 hours if they were
lucky) and were catapulted back to the bottom of the list for another 5
months

Here's the problem....the work has started to bounce back in Harlem,
the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island...but a lot of that work
is non union. In the heartland of NYC union construction, office
interior jobs in Midtown Manhattan and the Financial District, work is
really slow.

This translates to hard times for union carpenters in this town..since
the bulk of our work is in Manhattan south of 96th St.

It's not hard times for every union carpenter, of course...because, as
I explained earlier in this article, there's still guys who work every
day, and get OT every night. Some of these carpenters get scale....but
a lot of them work for cash.

Right now, about 3,500 union carpenters in New York City are listed on
the New York District Council of Carpenters out of work list. That's
over 15% of the NYDCofC's almost 20,000 active members.

As bad as that is, that's actually a modest improvement...during the
winter, there were around 6,000 brothers and sisters on the NYDCofC out
of work list - damned near 30% of the membership.

Not everybody in the union who's out of work signs the out of work
list, of course.

Some folks go out and work as non union carpenters. In fact, a very
high proportion of non union carpenters in this town actually have
union books. But, to keep food on the table, they have to go out and
pick up work wherever they can..and, if that means shaping up a non
union job, and working for $ 150 a day, or $ 75 a day or whatever..then
that's what they have to do.

Others take jobs in other industries or go out and work side jobs. The
money's less, but it beats waiting 5 months for a job from the list.

Also, since the US government decided to launch an unprovoked war of
agression against the citizens of the Republic of Iraq, many carpenters
in the National Guard, Army Reserve, Naval Militia and Navy Reserve
have been called up to serve with the Army Engineers and the Navy
Seabees.

The NYDCofC has actively encouraged carpenters to enlist in the US Army
Reserve's 77th Regional Support Command, to replace the soldiers who've
already shipped out to Iraq.

They even have a link on the NYDCofC website,
http://www.nycdistrictcouncil.com , that goes straight to the 77th RSC
USAR's recruiting webpage.

But, that support doesn't go so far as waiving the dues of carpenters
in uniform...they only get exempt from 3 months dues, no matter how
long they're deployed. Problem is, many are deployed for at least a
year...and, what with the high likelyhood of a large number of American
soldiers being posted to occupation duty to prop up the soon to be
installed US puppet "government" in "Free Iraq".....those deployments
might just get longer.

Beyond that, carpenters who've been called up to active duty have to
pay their union dues out of greatly reduced incomes, since Army combat
engineers and Navy seabees get paid way less than union carpenter
scale.

Besides the carpenters in the service, the guys doing side work, the
ones who put their card in their shoe and work non union, and those
working in other industries...there's another group of carpenters who
aren't in covered employment, but who's names are not on the out of
work list..for much sleazier reasons...

I'm talking about the guys who work for union contractors..but don't
get paid their benefits, and often don't even get paid scale.

As I've documented at length in GANGBOX over the last couple of years,
there are plenty of brothers and sisters who work for less than union
scale, and no benefit stamps, just to keep a job.

By the NYDCofC's own estimates, upwards of 20% of the hours worked by
union carpenters for union contractors do not have benefit
contributions paid on them.

As New York carpenters would say, these guys and gals "work for cash".

To read more about the NYDCofC's infamous "cash money men", see the
GANGBOX listserv, at :

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gangbox/message/2920

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gangbox/message/2987

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gangbox/message/3024

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gangbox/message/7582

and

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gangbox/message/8985

It would be one thing if EVERYBODY was sharing the pain...and hell,
maybe the out of work list wouldn't be 5 months long if NOBODY was
getting OT while so many people are on the bench.

But, unfortunately, we have an all too common situation where some
carpenters are suffering while other carpenters get paid..and, some of
those carpenters who are getting paid had to cut their own throats, and
put their families futures at risk, by agreeing to work for cash.

Beyond that, the NYDCofC has lost control of so much carpentry work
here.... The union still has it's stronghold in office interior work
(although, at least on the furniture installation end, a lot of those
"union" jobs are really cash jobs..and some of that cash activity is
starting to filter back into the drywall industry).

But, the NYDCofC has lost almost 4/5th of the Davis Bacon work, (the
New York City Housing Authority, the city's biggest landlord, does 100%
of it's work non union) and, when it comes to residential construction,
the core of the industry, that's almost all non union...and even the
"union" segment, new construction of luxury hirises, is ridden with
cash activity.

There have been some organizing efforts. The brothers who staff the
NYDCofC's organizing department are a sincere group, and they have
signed up 600 contractors in the past few years.

Which sounds good on paper.. But, the reality is, most of those
companies are non union outfits that sucessfully bid a union job, had
to sign an agreement with the union, and...once they're done with that
union job, they'll go back to being rats.

There have also been lobbying efforts aimed at the NYCHA, and at
pressuring the City Council to require scaffold contractors to have
formal training for their carpenters...training that, at the moment,
the DC has a monopoly on in this town.

Unfortunately, you can only go so far in organizing one contractor at a
time, or lobbying corporate politicians, rather than fighting to
unionize the whole market, and organize every carpenter in this town.
I'll go into more detail on that below....

A lot of carpenters here thought things would get better after the
NYDCofC's principal officer, Executive Secretary Treasurer Mike Forde,
was indicted and arrested in August 2000 for, allegedly, taking a $
10,000 bribe from the son-in-law of DeCavalcante mafia crime family
boss John Riggi to let the Parc Central hotel sheetrock job be done
with cash carpenters.

Of course, that hasn't panned out either..and, worse yet, the
government has it's own reasons for trying to clean out the building
trades unions...and it's not for the benefit of rank and file
tradespeople.

In other words, Walter Mack is here to help somebody..just not us.

Bottom line, things are looking very bad for union carpenters in the
city..and they don't look like they'll be getting better any time soon.

How did New York carpenters get into such a bad situation?

And what can be done to make things right?

Let's take a look....

From the late 1890's to the 1950's, almost all carpentry work in New
York City was done union.

Back then, the NYDCofC didn't have an out of work list....guys would
shape up contractors, often in groups, in April, and, unless they
really pissed somebody off, they'd work with the same company until
November or so. At that time, most carpenters worked directly for
GC's..we didn't have all the specialty subcontractors we have today.
Just about the only carpenters that came from the hall were shop
stewards.

Of course, there were problems...if you knew somebody, or had some kind
of connection, you'd have more opportunities for work than if you
didn't.

The industry changed in the 1950's..with the rise of sheetrock, GCs
started to sub out all their carpentry work to specialized
subcontractors (hirise concrete, drywall, woodwork ect). These subs
tended to have much sharper fluctuations in how much work they had..so,
they tended to have a small contingent of more or less permanent
workers ("company men") and they would take care of their needs for
extra labor by hiring extra guys from the hall ("local men").

And, of course, the local men ended up getting a hell of a lot less
work than the company men.

There was another factor in the New York carpentry industry..the role
of < la cosa nostra > ....the Mafia.

Organized crime had played a role in NYC's construction industry since
the late 19th century...mainly in the form of bid rigging
cartels..groups of contractors who would band together to set prices,
restrict competition and control the market.

Once the subcontracting system became the dominant method of building
in New York in the 1950's, a new < cosa nostra > racket emerged....bid
rigging. That is, mobbed up contractors teaming up to dominate the work
in a particular specialty, by pre arrainging their bids so a particular
contractor would have the low bid on one job, then another would be pre
arrainged to get the next job, still another would be allowed to field
the winning bid on the next job, and so forth.

By the 1960's, the "lumping" system developed. A union contractor,
typically acting under the protection of the < cosa nostra >, as well
as paying bribes to union officials, would get a job by submitting a
low bid (or, being the beneficiary of a bid rigging scam). Then, they'd
bring in a labor subcontractor who, for a lump sum fee, would bring in
carpenters who were recieving non union wages and no benefits.

Typically, these "lumpers" (as these cash carpenters were called) were
ACTUALLY UNION MEMBERS. This was so, if questioned by a shop steward,
they'd be able to produce a union card.

The rise of lumping, and the fact that corrupt union officers tolerated
it, directly contributed to the NYDCofC losing control of residential
construction in Harlem, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.
Those sectors had been union up until the early 1960's..by the 1980's,
residential construction in those areas was almost entirely scab work.

There were serious, militant, and often very violent, efforts by the
NYDCofC to stop non union jobs. In some cases, jobsites were bombed, in
other cases, "wrecking crews" composed of dozens of carpenter pickets
would vandalize the scab jobsites.

Unfortunately, far too often, the union only targeted jobs of non union
GC's who neglected to make the necessary payoffs to allow the BAs to
look the other way. Those who slipped envelopes filled with cash to the
right people were allowed to operate unmolested.

Then, starting in the early 1980's, the racketeering investigations
that have targeted the New York Carpenters Union for the last two
decades began to unfold.

Now, a lot of tradespeople in this town have illusions about why the
government ended up investigating the NYDCofC and other building trades
unions. A lot of folks think the feds, the state and the New York
County DA are here to help us.

Not so. The lawmen came because construction industry corruption was
STARTING TO COST THE DEVELOPERS A LOT OF MONEY. The "Mob Tax" that
contractors had to pay to use lumpers started to really add up...so,
the big real estate interests, mortgage bankers and developers asked
the government to step in and put a stop to it.

Remember..when rich people get ripped off...or even THINK they're
getting ripped off.....somebody has got to go to jail...and that's
exactly what happened.

But, the city, state and federal lawmen never forgot who they were
really working for..the billionares and the banks. The New York State
Organized Crime Control Commission actualy openly stated in it's report
"Corruption and Racketeering in the New York City Construction
Industry" that their goal was not only eliminating racketeering from
the industry..but also weakening the unions, dismantling the union
hiring halls and destroying the union apprenticeship system.

In any event, some of the more open corruption got stopped.

Like the "wheel"..the system where < cosa nostra> linked drywall
contractors prearrainged who'd come in as lowest bidder on major jobs.

Or the "concrete club", where < cosa nostra > determined which hirise
concrete contractor would come in as low bidder on every concrete job
in the city worth more than $ 2 million

If the job was worth more than $ 20 million, only ONE company in the
entire city would be allowed to take the job...S & A Concrete. S & A
just happened to be owned by the boss of the Genovese crime family, one
Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno.

But, on the downside, with so many union officials charged with
involvement in these bid rigging schemes, (union officials often served
as bagmen and go betweens in these scams) not only did the bribery and
bid rigging come to a halt, but the wrecking crews, bombings and other
violent picketing activity against rat jobs had to stop too..

The ending of all significant union pressure against rat jobs helped
spread non union work throughout the city. By the 1990's, almost all
residential construction in the city was done with non union labor. The
union also lost a lot of Davis Bacon work, and even some commercial
construction.

Some of this scab activity was government subsidized. The New York City
Department of Housing Preservation and Development, working with the US
Department of Housing and Urban Development, administers a number of
low income housing construction programs.

Technically, that work should be covered by Davis Bacon, and should pay
prevailing wages.

However, HPD funnels the HUD funds through local 501 (c)(3) not for
profit community organizations in poor minority communities like
Harlem, the South Bronx and Central Brooklyn. And those groups turn
around and hire non union GCs to do the work.

And not just any non union GCs..but some of the lowest paying outfits
in the city, firms that only pay their carpenters and bricklayers
between $ 75 and $ 100 per day..and only pay their helpers and laborers
$ 40 a day plus lunch.

The New York City Housing Authority, the entity that runs the city's
public housing projects, has also decided to do all of it's
construction work with non union labor. And they're not the only ones
to go that route..the Dormatory Authority, State of New York and the
New York City School Construction Authority have also been agressively
moving towards open shop construction.

The city's Department of Design and Construction and the state
Metropolitan Transportation Authority have also been attempting to go
down that road. The MTA's biggest non union job, the Subway Command
Center on W 54th St and 9th Avenue, was turned around...and rat GC Roy
Kay Construction forced to become a signatory contractor....by one of
the most militant building trades rallies of the late 20th century, the
so called "40,000 man march" of June 30, 1998.

Meanwhile, other non union GCs came to dominate the renovation of
luxury brownstones and co ops in Manhattan and Brooklyn, and the
construction of single family houses and moderate income apartment
buildings in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and the Bronx. Some of
these rat outfits have branched out into store and restaurant
construction as well.

The only island of union work in the residential sector is new
construction of luxury hirises. Even there, many contractors,
allegedly, do not pay union scale or benefit stamps to some of their
company man carpenters and laborers.

A number of contractors have been accused of this cash activity, by
anonymous reports on union dissident website Carpenter's Jaw'in
[http://angry.at/jawin] and by investigations by the US Department of
Justice, New York State Organized Crime Commission and the New York
County DA's office.

They include hirise concrete contractors Peter Scalamandre & Sons, Inc,
North Side, Inc [formerly North Berry, Inc], LaQuilla Pinnacle, Marmer
Brothers, Atlas and Manhattan Concrete, and exterior scaffolding
contractor Regional Scaffolding and Hoisting. Some of those firms,
allegedly, also paid cash to cement masons and concrete laborers as
well as carpenters.

There have also been accusations of the same kind of alleged cash
activity by drywall contractors S & S Construction, R & J Construction,
Frank's Home Improvement, S & F Carpentry, Eurotech, Target
Construction, Crown Partition, Arrowstar, New York City Accoustical,
Chelsea Interiors, Luna Carpentry, Sunrise Construction, On Par, Prince
Carpentry, Ace Drywall, Universal Drywall, Manhattan Interior Group and
Turbo Interiors.

Besides the cash there have been other contract violations also, such
as sheetrockers getting paid piecerate bonuses, contractors abolishing
the lunchbreak and having their guys work straight through, union
contractors paying sheetrockers between $ 8/hr and $ 30/hr with no
benefit stamps on renovation jobs in the Upper Manhattan Empowerment
Zone, unpaid 2 hour "tryouts" for sheetrockers seeking jobs, and, of
course, the widespread pattern of sheetrockers being subject to
production quotas.

Many of those abuses have, allegedly, been carried out by one
particular drywall contractor...R & J Construction, of Long Beach, Long
Island.

R & J is the largest Black owned union drywall outfit in the city, but
many carpenters, Black, White and Latino alike, loathe this company.
The firm is sometimes called "Run and Jump" because of abuses such as
it's 100 board a day production quotas, 2 hour unpaid tryouts and
straight 7 hour days with no lunchbreak.

R & J, along with Frank's Home Improvement, are also reportedly
involved with the jobs in the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone that pay
union carpenters between $ 8 and $ 30 an hour with no stamps.

Some of that drywall sector cash activity has also bled into the office
interior work sector, the core of the NYDCofC's jurisdiction. And not
just by drywall contractors...in this sector, much of the abuse has,
allegedly, been carried out by furniture contractors, like G & M
Installers, OMNI, T.O.P.S., CMI, J.A.D., J & E Enterprises, Al-Lee
Installations, Arrow Discount Office Furniture D/B/A E G Sales, L & D
Installers, DFB Sales and Vintage Corporate Services.

In pratice, some "union" jobs were really non union...except for the
fact that the contractors were signatory, and the carpenters had union
books.

There would be further racketeering investigations in the late 1990's
and early 2000s regarding union officials allegedly taking bribes to
look the other way while this cash was being paid. And not just in the
Carpenters Union..there were similar investigations in the Laborers,
Bricklayers, Roofers, Elevator Constructors and Operating Engineers
unions.

Meanwhile, another disturbing trend began to emerge...the systematic
weakening of union agreements, in particular the 50/50 clause, which
led directly to a sharp decline in the number of hours that local
carpenters get from the out of work list.

As I mentioned above, certain associations got exempt from the 50/50
rule, like the Metropolitan Drywall Association and the Manufacturing
Woodworkers Association. Individual contractors also got exemptions,
like metal office partition instalation outfits Acme Architectural
Walls, Steelcase Architectural Walls and Modernfold/Styles.

This may be the future of the NYDCofC....as cash deals and payoffs
become harder and harder to pull off, the union might start making
deals where contractors openly get to pay substandard wages. Hell, we
might even end up like most of the rest of the country, where union
carpenters on residential and trade show jobs get lower wages and
benefits than carpenters on commercial jobs do.

Between contract violations, and watered down agreements with certain
contractors and associations, a vicious cycle was created..it became
harder and harder for local men to get jobs, and becoming a company
man, by any means necessary, became more and more vital to thrive as a
New York union carpenter. This inevatibly led to more cash activity, as
guys did whatever they had to do to feed their families.

Now, in the NYDCofC's defense, they have been making some serious
efforts to organize the non union segment of the industry. For the last
6 years, the NYDCofC's Organizing Department, and the dedicated
brothers who staff it, have been going out, setting up picketlines
(with the famous inflatable rat, which has become well known among New
Yorkers from all walks of life) and launching NLRB petition campaigns
at a number of non union outfits. To date, they have signed over 600
new contractors.

The NYDCofC's Labor Management Fund has also gotten into the act.
They've gone after non union Davis Bacon contractors, by launching a
citywide campaign against the NYCHA, and it's policy of 100% non union
open shop construction in it's vast network of housing projects
scattered across the city.

However, there is a downside to the organizing department's work.

One big problem is the degree that many carpenters resent the
Organizing Department's work.

In particular, mandatory picketing.

Most carpenters are outraged that they are required to take a day off
from work, without pay, to picket, or face a $ 250 fine from the union.
In the old days, carpenters on the out of work list were ASKED TO
VOLUNTEER for picket duty, got paid $ 20 a day, and had the opportunity
to work on that job if it was turned around.

Also, many carpenters are troubled by the fact that the Organizing
Department has brought 2,000 new carpenters into the union..but has not
significantly expanded the union's market base. That means that there
are now 19,000 people chasing after the same number of jobs that used
to sustain 17,000 people.

This is consistant with the national organizing strategy of United
Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America General President
Douglass J. "Cash" McCarron. "Cash" wants the contractors to be able to
pick and choose who they want to hire from the hall, to only hire from
the hall when they feel like it, and, to always have a large pool of
unemployed and hungry carpenters, no matter how much work there is, so
the contractors will always have a large labor pool ready at a moment's
notice.

McCarron calls that "User Friendly Unionism"..with the contractors
being the "users", of course.

A more accurate name might be "Labor Ready Unionism"..day labor with a
union label.

Beyond that, reportedly, some of those 600 "new" contractors are GC's
who have few carpenters on the payroll, joint ventures, or companies
that came into the New York market just to run a few jobs, and will
soon be leaving the area.

Beyond that, there are some fundamental limitations of the NLRB
process, ESPECIALLY when it comes to the construction industry. The
Organizing Department ran into these obstacles early, when they tried
to organize non union GCs working in Harlem back in the late 1990's.

They tried to organize individual contractors. The problem is, if an
individual GC starts paying scale, while their competitors are still
paying $ 75 bucks a day, they will soon go bankrupt. Or, they will have
to violate the agreement, and pay the same low wages their competitors
are.

Needless to say, much of that sector is still non union. There ARE
union jobs in Harlem, though, mainly the two big hirise projects on
125th St (one of which is actually a union funded job...the Hotel
Employees and Restaurant Employees clinic on W 125th and Morningside
Drive), and some of the larger apartment building jobs being run by big
GCs like Sciame and Gotham who work union everywhere in the city, and
only use union subs.

Of course...as I pointed out above, just because there are union
subcontractors on a job doesn't necessarily mean that the carpenters
are being paid scale and benefit stamps. This is especially true in
residential construction..and the bulk of the work in Harlem is
residential.

Basically, what's needed is an areawide strategy, that goes after all
of the rat contractors at one time.. I'll go into more detail on that
below.

There's also the problem of dealing with abuses by "our good union
contractors"..many of whom, apparently, are merely rats who've signed a
union agreement. And, there are alleged abuses of the hiring system by
union officials themselves...which is why the feds sent Walter Mack to
oversee the out of work list in the first place.

The question is..what can be done?

First, we have to face some facts.

We have a deeper problem than just corruption...even though corruption
is what brought "lumpers" into our industry here, and led to the
current non union epidemic.

And, despite the hope and wishful thinking of a lot of union carpenters
(as well as union laborers, masons, bricklayers, operating engineers,
roofers ect...), the government is NOT here to help us..they want to
end extortion and bribery against the developers and owners...

The ultimate goal of the government is nothing less than weakened or
tamed unions, with a weak to nonexistant steward system, a greatly
restricted hiring hall system, and, most importantly, grossly
substandard wages...

Basically, the feds don't want to ABOLISH the cash system, they want to
LEGALIZE it..and not have contractors having to pay a bribe for the
privilige of underpaying their tradespeople...

And it isn't just simple corruption and bribe taking that prevents our
union from fighting back.

It's deeper than that..it's an ideological problem...three interrelated
problems that I call "Business Unionism", "Gangster Unionism" and
"Corporate Unionism".

Business Unionism is the dominant ideology of the American labor
movement...basically every union in this country, to one degree or
another, is run according to business unionist principles.

That is, the leaders of the union belive that bosses and workers are
"partners"..that we have "common interests" and the purpose of a union
is to promote "cooperation" between labor and management.

Some unions, in particular building trades unions, are dominated by a
particularly nasty version of business unionism that I like to call
"Gangster Unionism".

That is, the leaders of the union see the labor organization as a
racket..they, like business unionists, believe in "cooperation" between
labor and management..but, they sell that cooperation for a fee to the
highest bidder. Contractors who don't pay up find themselves the
targets of union resistance. Bosses who do pony up the cash can commit
any kind of labor abuses they want to..and will not be stopped by the
union.

Lately, a lot of unions have been influenced by what I call "Corporate
Unionism".

The union that represents our brothers and sisters in the building
service industry, the Service Employees International Union, is
probably the worst example of "Corporate Unionism", but that same
ideology is also followed by the UBCJA's International Union.

"Corporate Unionism" is yet another form of business unionism, with a
fascist twist. Corporate unions dispense with even the most minimal
forms of union democracy, the better to cram givebacks down the
member's throats. In the most extreme corporate unions, like the SEIU,
most of the officers of the union have never even worked in the
industry they supposedly "represent".

Corporate unions totally give away the store to the bosses..and the
corporate union bosses don't even have enough self respect to collect
bribes from the employers in exchange! The most nauseating and
destructive example of Carpenters Union corporate unionism is, of
course, "organizing" campaigns that sign up lots and lots of
workers..just so the out of work list can be flooded with unemployed
carpenters, and employers have a huge, Labor Ready-style pool of
workers to pick and choose from.

Of course, GANGBOX subscribers know that labor and management have
nothing in common..we have a fundamental conflict with the
contractors, due to the basic fact that we sell them our labor, and
they pay us less than the value we produce. This conflict between
workers and businesspeople is a basic part of the capitalistic system,
and will persist for as long as we live in a society ruled by
financiers.

The fact is, the profits of the businesspeople come from the labor of
workers. Worker's labor makes bosses rich, and workers only get paid a
fraction of the economic value we produce.

For example, New York union carpenters [if they actually get paid union
scale, instead of working for cash] make $ 37.36 an hour in wages and $
24.91 an hour in benefits for every hour of work, or $ 425.89 dollars
total compensation for a 7 hour day.

But, the contractors bill far more than that..in some subdivisions of
carpentry, such as lock installation, as much as $ 150 to $ 250 AN HOUR
for our labor. In other words, they don't pay us $ 425 a day..we
produce $ 1,750 dollars worth of work in a 7 hour workday..and we, in
effect, pay the bossman $ 1,325 a day.

Of course, some of that $ 1,325 goes to cover legitimate bookeeping,
office, estimating and supervisory services..but an awful lot of it
goes straight into the pockets of the contractors.

The purpose of unions under a capitalistic system should be to reduce
the portion of that $ 1,750 that goes into the contractor's pocket..and
increase the portion that goes into ours....

Ultimately, of course, we have to fight for a system where the society
is ruled by workers, rather than by businesspeople... Until we get to
that place, we have to fight to gain a greater share of society's
production for the folks who actually do the producing.....that is, the
workers.

For us to achieve those goals, we need to transform our unions into
what I call "Revolutionary Unions".

I've talked about revolutionary unionism on the GANGBOX website before,
at :

http://www.geocities.com/gangbox/csu1.html

http://www.geocities.com/gangbox/downbylaw.html

http://www.geocities.com/gangbox/contract2001.html

and on the GANGBOX listserv, at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gangbox/message/22

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gangbox/message/954

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gangbox/message/2466

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gangbox/message/2659

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gangbox/message/4738

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gangbox/message/5059

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gangbox/message/7966

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gangbox/message/8649

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gangbox/message/8770

and

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gangbox/message/9027

Basically, revolutionary unionism means that unions recognize the fact
that, as I pointed out above, we as workers, and the businesspeople we
work for, have no common interests. "Labor management partnership" is
an illusion, in fact, we're in conflict with our bosses every single
day.

Specifically, in the case of the out of work list, a revolutionary
Carpenters Union would fight to equally distribute the hours that are
available, financially take care of the brothers and sisters on the
bench and organize all the non union work, making sure that every
single carpentry outfit in the city is signatory to our
agreements..and, more importantly, actually lives up to them.

I think the best way to equally distribute the work is replacing the
old 50/50 system with what I call a 90/10 job referral system.

That is, a contractor would be allowed to have 5 of his/her first 10
carpenters as company men, but, thereafter, a MINIMUM of 90% of that
contractors workforce would be hired from the hall, with a MAXIMUM of
10% of that boss's workforce being company men.

And, instead of the present system, where local men/women get laid off
as soon as the job is done, but company men go from job to job, I would
require the contractor to take all of their carpenters from job to job,
as long as there was enough work for everybody.

If a contractor had a lack of work for his/her entire crew, then, the
boss would be allowed to do a layoff.

But, that layoff would not be like it is now, where the boss lays off
whoever he/she feels like.

Instead, the layoff would be by seniority.

Now, I understand that, in the building trades, "seniority" is an
unknown concept. But, in most unions, layoffs have been done by
seniority for the last 70 years or so.

In other words, it's time the building trades caught up with the 20th
century.

The way layoffs by seniority work is, basically, "last hired, first
fired".

That is, the last carpenter hired would be the first one to get
his/her check if an employer had to do a layoff.

We also need to do something to take care of those carpenters who tend
to get discriminated against...that is, minorities, women, apprentices
and older carpenters.

The ugly reality is, there are still some White contractors who don't
like to hire Black men or Latinos...or, if they hire men of color, they
lay them off before the White guys get cut.

Also, many male owned companies don't want to have women on their
jobs..due to sexist stereotypes about women being "weak"..and cheap GCs
who don't want to pay the expense of having restroom facilities for
women on the site.

A lot of companies see 1st year or 2nd year apprentices as cheap
delivery labor, but don't want to hire the more expensive 3rd or 4th
year apprentices (many New York carpenter apprentices spend their
entire 4th year on the out of work list)..

And, worst of all, this business really doesn't take care of the older
brothers and sisters..rather than looking to use their years of trade
wisdom to run the jobs better, contractors often merely see them as
"old and slow", and are reluctant to hire them.

In 1995, the city's largest union drywall and ceilings outfit, Nastasi
White Inc, actually laid off every single carpenter on their payroll
who was over age 50.

I would propose a quota system to deal with those abuses.

Every contractor would be required to have at least 30% of the
carpenters referred to him/her from the hall be Black, Latino or Asian,
at least 10% be women, at least one out of every six be an apprentice
(and that would include the 3rd years and 4th years, who contractors
frequently don't wnat to hire, since they're wages are closer to
journeyman level..not just the cheaper 1st years and 2nd years) and at
least 10% be carpenters over age 50.

The objective of this system is for as many carpenters as possible to
have something remotely resembling steady jobs...

But, what would we do if there wasn't enough work to go around?

Simple...a supplimental unemployment fund, (similar to New York
Electricians local 3's "B Fund").

I would propose that we demand a $ 10/hr increase in the current
benefit stamp, entirely for the purpose of setting up a supplimental
unemployment fund. This fund would be set up in such a way that any
carpenter, who is unemployed and on the out of work list, would get a
minimum of $ 405/week for as long as they were on the bench. That B
fund benefit would continue even after the carpenter ran out of UI.

Now, I'm sure some carpenters might say that the contractors "can't
afford" that extra $ 10/hr. Honestly, considering how much they make
from our labor..$ 350/wk is the least they can contribute to the upkeep
of laid off carpenters. After all..when work gets busy..they'll need
those guys and gals.. So, why the hell shouldn't the contractors take
responsiblity for them when work is slow? It's only fair.

And, on the real, if out of work union carpenters can get $ 405 a week
from UI, and $ 405 a week from a carpenter B fund..or even just $ 405 a
week from the carpenter B fund after their UI runs out, they're a hell
of a lot less likely to go out and work non union..as many are forced
to do these days.

Beyond that, we need to make sure that every construction site in this
city use union carpenters, every carpentry contractor is union (and
actually pays scale), every GC only uses union subs, and every
carpenter in this town has a union book and works under union
conditions.

In other words..organizing.

And I don't mean "organize" the way "Cash" McCarron does.

What I'm talking about is going back to the same methods that were
originally used 150 years ago by Peter J. McGuire and the other
socialists, communists and anarchists who originally built this union.
That is, what they called a "trade movement".

A "trade movement" was basically a city or area wide general strike of
carpenters.

They'd have a march of union members go around town, and shut down
every non union jobsite they saw, until every General Contractor was
forced to enforce the union working rules on their jobs.

In more recent times, the residential sheetrockers in Southern
California used similar tactics to re unionize that segment of the
residential construction industry.

Closer to home, the coalitions used "trade movement" style tactics to
racially integrate the construction industry (and, in particular, the
Carpenters and Laborers unions) here in New York during the 1960's,
70's, 80's and 90's).

The union itself used "trade movement" style tactics ("wrecking crews")
to keep the non union contractors at bay during those same years.

We could definitely use similar tactics to reorganize our business here
in New York...

We could organize a city wide strike of all the non union carpenters in
the city..the carpenters working in low income HPD construction in
Harlem, the Bronx and Brooklyn, along with the carpenters who do luxury
renovation work in Manhattan and Brooklyn, as well as the carpenters
who build moderate income housing in Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx and
Staten Island and the carpenters on non union Davis Bacon jobs for
DASNY, the SCA, the MTA and the NYCHA.

Also, that citywide carpenters strike would be a good time to shut down
signatory contractors who pay cash, (in particular, those concrete and
drywall contractors who allegedly pay cash in the luxury hirise
sector, and the furniture and drywall outfits who have brought non
union conditions into the core of our work, office interiors,) so as to
force them to actually live up to the agreement.

The sad thing is..a lot of those "non union" brothers and sisters ARE
ACTUALLY UNION CARPENTERS. They have to work non union just to survive.
They would have to be mobilized to fight to impose union conditions on
the non union jobs where they are working.

But, we need to transform our union to be able to wage a struggle like
that from a business union to a revolutionary union.

In a revolutionary union, all political power would come from the
membership, as represented by rank and file delegates. That would be a
major change from the present structure, where all power comes from BAs
and officers, many of whom make 6 figure salaries, and haven't put on
the tools in years.

I would propose that the main administrative body in the NYDCof C would
be a Council of Delegates. But, it would be very different than the
present Delegate Body, which is composed almost entirely of BAs and
officers (and even foremen!), rather than rank and file carpenters.

This Council of Delegates would be made up of carpenters who work on
the tools, who would get time off from work (paid by the union at the
journeyman rate) to attend delegate meetings. The delegates would be
journeylevel carpenters, with at least 5 years in the business, who
would be directly elected from each local, and would serve a single,
non re electable 3 year term of office.

The Council of Delegates would decide on all union expenditures, make
all policy decisions, and supervise the work of all union committees,
officers and staff.

There would still be union officers and BAs, but they would be
subordinate to the Council of Delegates. Those officers would also be
elected to 3 year, non re electable terms and, upon completion of their
term of office, would have to return to the tools for at least 3 years
before they'd be eligible to run for any other elected union office.

The DC's out of work list system would be overseen by an Out of Work
List Committee, composed of delegates directly elected by the rank and
file, under the same rules as the Council of Delegates. The Out of Work
List Committee would oversee the operation of the dispatch system, and
contractor compliance with my proposed 90/10 rule.

In the event that a contractor wanted to fire a carpenter for cause,
there would be a union Trial Committee. The Trial Committe would be
composed of delegates elected directly by the membership, under the
same election rules as the Council of Delegates.

The Trial Committee would review the proposed discharge, to make sure
that the contractor actually has a legitimate reason to fire that
particular carpenter (such as theft, assault on a supervisor or a
fellow worker, sexual harassment or unexcused absence from work for
more than 5 consecutive days). The contractor wouldn't be allowed to
fire that worker until the Trial Committee had found that the employer
had just cause.

This would abolish the at will employment system that union carpenters
in New York have suffered under for the last 150 years. Taking away the
employer's despotic power to fire carpenters at will would do a lot to
enable carpenters to resist on the job abuses, without fear of being
laid off on the spot.

The Trial Committee would also handle all other internal union charges,
and would also have the authority to impeach union officers for
misconduct.

There would also be an Organizing Committee, composed of directly
elected delegates, that would carry out the work of making sure that
every GC and subcontractor in the NYDCofC area was using union
carpenters. Remember, if we don't bring up every carpenter in our area
up to union levels, our conditions will inevitably fall to non union
levels.

We can see that clearly with the luxury hirise sector. Since the rest
of residential construction is non union, the contractors who work in
the only remaining unionized segment of that sector (that is, luxury
hirises) end up forcing wages down to non union levels illegally by
paying cash. We're also at risk of having the union ultimately imposing
a lower residential scale on the union residential job, as has already
been done in every other District Council and Regional Council in North
America.

I would also propose similar delegate bodies, to oversee the
apprenticeship program, the welfare funds, the pension fund, the
union's lobbyists at City Hall and in Albany and Washington, and the
"Carpenter" newsletter and the NYDCofC's official website,
http://www.nycdistrictcouncil.com

I would also recommend a similar delegate-based union leadership
structure in the local unions, in other District, Regional and
Industrial Councils, and in the UBCJA international itself.

But the real strength of a union is in it's presence on the
jobsites...that is, the shop steward system.

I would propose that every contractor have a general shop steward.

The general stewards at GCs and subcontractors would be appointed by
the NYDCofC Out of Work List Committee, the general stewards at cabinet
shops, the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, Madison Square Garden and
in the maintenance carpentry shops at department stores and office
buildings would be directly elected by the workers they represent. In
either case they would serve 6 month terms of office, and, in the case
of general stewards at GCs and subcontractors, they would have to work
on their tools for at least 6 months before serving as a general
steward for another term.

The general steward's job would be to make sure that the contractor is
paying full union scale and benefit stamps to every carpenter on their
payroll, and are otherwise in compliance with the union agreement on
every jobsite they operate on.

The general stewards, and the NYDCofC Out of Work List Committee, would
make sure that every contractor has a shop steward on every job they
have..even the little one day 2 person jobs. On large jobs, where 50+
carpenters were employed, there would be an assistant shop steward
appointed..with one additional assistant steward for every 50
carpenters. Jobs with more than one shift would have at least one
shoppie per shift.

The shop stewards on the jobs would be the front line. They'd have to
have the authority to stop work on a site if a contractor was paying
cash, or if non union people were doing our work, or if there was a
safety or health hazard that threatened our members or if there was any
other violation of the agreement.

The role of the general steward, as well as the BAs from the locals,
would be to assist the steward on the job in resolving this dispute. If
the contractor didn't see reason, and settle the dispute to the
satisfaction of the members on that site within a reasonable amount of
time (say, 3 business days), the general steward would have the
authority to shut down every job being run by that company.

In the case of companies that do work out of town..that would include
every job they're running in North America, not just their sites in the
NYDCofC juridictional area.. In the case of woodwork outfits that would
include their cabinet shops as well as the jobsites where they are
installing.

Remember, the most effective way to settle a greivance with an employer
is to shut down production until they settle...because, if the boss
stops making money, you will get his/her undivided attention.

Those are all good ideas..on paper.

The next question is..how do we actually carry out a radical program
like that??

Is the current leadership at the NYDCofC going to lead a fight like
that?

Not likely...struggling against all of the contractors really doesn't
fit in with gangster unionism.

How about "Cash" McCarron and the UBCJA international leadership?

Even less likely...struggling against all of the contractors fits in
even less with corporate unionism.

Is the government going to make our union better? Are Walter Mack,
Judge Charles Haight or District Attorney Robert Morgenthau going to
save us?

Absolutely not!

The government's reason for investigating union corruption is NOT to
help us..

It's intended to protect the developers and mortgage bankers from
paying bribes to corrupt union officials and < la Cosa Nostra >.

The feds, the state and the DA's office have no problem with carpenters
getting paid lower wages, and having our hiring hall gutted..(just read
the New York State Organized Crime Control Commission's report
"Corruption and Racketeering in the New York City Construction
Industry", and you'll see their union busting plans for our industry)

Instead, they just want the NYDCofC (and the other New York building
trades unions) to give those same concessions openly to ALL the
contractors, free of charge, rather than only offiering those special
deals secretly to connected contractors who pay bribes.

Remember, the government serves the corporations, not us.

Then, who's going to lead the kind of struggle it's going to take to
make things more bearable for the 19,000 union carpenters in this
town..and our 20,000 brothers and sisters in the non union part of our
trade?

Well...it looks like we're going to have to do it.

And, that will take a major struggle..against an array of powerful
enemies; the union machine in the locals and the NYDCofC, the UBCJA
international, the contractors, the bankers, the real estate
developers, and the entire law enforcement community, federal, state
and local.

It'll be a hard fight.and the only folks helping us will be our
brothers and sisters in the other trades.

But, the reality is, we can either struggle to make things better..or
watch our unions slowly decline.

Thats it for now.

Be union, work safe.





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