Millennium Morning Project: IBEW and Carpenters Presidents Weigh-In on Outlook for Unions

The BAC Executive Council examined the challenges facing labor unions in the construction industry as it continued work on Phase II of the Union's strategic planning initiative, the Millennium Morning Project. The Council heard from the President of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and the President of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters on ways their unions are coping with the changing world in which we live, organize, and work.

IBEW President Ed Hill addresses the BAC Executive Council.

IBEW President Ed Hill applauded BAC for engaging in strategic planning. "The process is vital to marshalling your resources for the best possible use in these challenging times," said Hill. The IBEW went through a similar process which helped reverse its decline and put it back on the "road to growth once again." But he cautioned, "There is not one union in the building trades or the labor movement as a whole that can honestly say it is doing well enough."

Hill told the Council that the problems facing the labor movement stem from a failure in the 1960s to look beyond the "comfortable present" when unions were strong. "As a result - we nearly lost it all," said Hill. The good times in the 1990s "engendered a new round of complacency. Full workbooks and a pick of job opportunities made the times seem rosier than they were. And, just as it happened before, we lost sight of some underlying problems that were affecting us all...The failure to act decisively [now] is a luxury we cannot afford and never will be able to afford."

Keynote speaker New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson greets Local 1 TX/LA/NM Organizer/Field Representative Anthony Tapia. A native of New Mexico, Tapia worked on Richardson's successful campaign.

Hill told the Council, "There is one overriding fact that should inform your deliberations at this meeting and influence the actions of both our unions and all of labor. As the nation went to war, we must understand that we, the working people of the United States and Canada were already in a war, a struggle to protect our standard of living, and a fight for our very survival."

Pointing to the actions taken by the Bush Administration against unions and working families, Hill noted that the Administration's goal is "to put labor unions out of business…The president [Bush] had no hesitation to interfere in the bargaining between the West Coast longshoremen and the shipping companies. He had no trouble equating unionism with a lack of patriotism…"

Hill cited the Administration's economic policies, which take money from the working poor and middle class and put it in the pockets of the wealthiest, as hurting our members. "This is what causes construction to lag and job opportunities to dry up. This fiscal mess is what stifles growth and creates unemployment among our ranks," said Hill.

The IBEW is addressing these challenges by doing more to ensure that members deliver the quality of work expected of union members, encouraging members to reach out to non-union workers, and mobilizing on the political front to elect candidates that "stand up for the bread and butter issues," said Hill. In closing, he pledged "a good effort at inter-union solidarity," noting that BAC is a "stalwart union with a long and proud tradition. I am proud to stand with you, as are all the men and women of the IBEW."

Carpenters President Doug McCarron responds to questions from Council members.

Carpenters President Doug McCarron, also addressed the Council on the steps his union is taking to address the challenges facing unions. McCarron told the Council that to achieve greater organizing success, "You have to think in a different way," and stop the "blame game." Citing structural changes and mergers that have taken place under his administration as evidence of the benefits of change, he said organized labor lost ground in the "'70s and '80s because we stopped sticking together…we stopped bottom-up organizing…and we got away from our roots." McCarron warned, "if some building trades don't change, they're going to disappear."

The importance of reaching out to non-union workers was underscored in the results of a survey of non-union masonry craftworkers conducted by Peter Hart Research for BAC. The survey found that less than half of the non-union workers surveyed had been asked to join a union, and only 26% of those workers had been asked to join BAC.

Reaching the Unorganized

Labor force issues were also a focus of the spring Council meeting. Immigrants' rights attorney Brian O'Dwyer told the Council that immigrant workers are an important, but often exploited pool of new entrants to the workforce. "These new immigrants are doing the same as our fathers and grandfathers did - looking for a better way of life," said O'Dwyer. Although recent court decisions have "removed a significant remedy available to undocumented workers and their advocates, with skill and ingenuity the organizer can still find avenues to aid the undocumented and at the same time, stop the exploitation of undocumented labor and unfair competition from unscrupulous employers," he added.

Canadian Study

Bob Collins, a partner with Prism Economics and Analysis, updated the Council on phase II of the Canadian Masonry Human Resource Committee's work. Conditions are the same in the U.S. and Canada, Collins told the Council. Both countries are facing an aging workforce, there are an insufficient number of apprentices, and as a result masonry is losing market share and segments of work. The Committee, working closely with BAC Locals in Canada, is investigating new approaches for attracting, training, and retaining skilled workers in the masonry trades. The Committee's work is an important adjunct to BAC's strategic planning effort and "we look forward to the results of their study," said President John J. Flynn.