Sisters in the Brotherhood
The United Brotherhood of Carpenters caves to Trump
The Northwest Labor Press reports that the half-a-million-strong United Brotherhood of Carpenters has eliminated its two-decade-old Women’s Committee in response to the Trump administration’s anti-DEI push. This nakedly misogynistic action by a union steeped in sexism is the capstone of a long history of exceedingly problematic behavior by the Carpenters—crushing union democracy, abandoning the AFL-CIO, squandering their pensions on piss-poor investments, atrocious contracts, and raiding other, better unions. Carpenters President Doug McCarron runs his union like a dictatorship with no accountability from members.
But despite this, in my view, the labor movement has been too quiet about the Carpenters’ and McCarron’s misdeeds. The federal investigations into the Teamsters began when the union was at the height of its power, and Hoffa had a fruitful friendship with Harry Bridges, the Communist head of the ILWU (a friendship that enraged Robert F. Kennedy, then working for hard-right segregationist John McClellan). The mob connections were what brought Hoffa and his successors down, but it was the union’s power that initially piqued the interests of federal investigators.
McCarron, on the other hand, is a proud man of the right with deep connections to both political parties, content to help manage labor’s decline while sabotaging solidarity—practices that likely insulate him from the prying eyes of federal investigators. The time is ripe for the institutional labor movement to begin calling for more fulsome investigations into his conduct.
News and Views
Massachusetts is weighing a “trigger law” that would enshrine the National Labor Relations Act into state law and allow the state to enforce private sector union rights when the NLRB fails or declines to do so. New York passed a narrower version of that measure this year, but it remains to be seen if Governor Kathy Hochul will sign it.
Some international labor solidarity news: United Auto Workers leaders recently met with the Korean Metal Workers' Union to strategize over unionization efforts in the battery sector. A victory of the UAW’s 2023 stand up strike was winning card check agreements and coverage under the UAW master agreement for workers at GM and Stellantis joint venture battery plants – key to the union’s prosperity in the EV era. “In solidarity with the militant KMWU, the UAW appears to be ramping up pressure on BlueOval SK, the joint venture between SK On and Ford Motor, which remains the only union-free company among the joint ventures between Korean battery manufacturers and U.S. automakers,” Korea Times reports.
Grocery stand up strike continues apace? Thousands of Bay Area Safeway workers just voted to authorize a strike. (Safeway is owned by Albertsons.) Kroger and Albertsons workers in New Mexico just ratified contracts. The Safeway strike in Colorado recently ended with a tentative agreement.
Today’s Wins
Co-op workers in Ithaca represented by Workers United SEIU ratified their first contract.
Workers at the Norfolk, Virginia Botanical Garden are organizing with the Machinists.