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AGC: union trades may 'expedite extinction' with ongoing battles

Date Posted: June 27 2005

Union disunity is starting to raise red flags with construction employers.

"It is indisputable that fears of costly and disruptive jurisdictional disputes have made many owners apprehensive about hiring union contractors," said the Associated General Contractors' Robert Epifano, in a letter to AFL-CIO Building Trades Department President Edward Sweeney. "The union sector's longevity is already jeopardized by these disputes. Further discord will only expedite extinction."

Epifano, who wrote the letter on May 31, is chairman of the Union Contractors Committee of the AGC. His letter, which was no doubt disseminated among building trades leaders, laid out the AGC's concerns over the ongoing upheaval between the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, the rest of the building trades and the AFL-CIO.

The Carpenters, while aligned with the AFL-CIO's Building Trades Department, have dropped out of the AFL-CIO primarily over a dispute over how dues money is spent on organizing. Their status with the building trades - as well as the future of the structure of nearly all of organized labor in the U.S. - probably will be decided next month at a meeting of the AFL-CIO. Unions will vote whether they want to retain AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.

Jurisdictional battles are likely an inevitable result following last month's action by the Carpenters, who cancelled long-held work assignment agreements with the Iron Workers and the Sheet Metal Workers International Unions.

Carpenters President Doug McCarron said in ending the jurisdictional agreements "our union contractors will be more competitive and the members of both of our organizations will gain market share."

Both Iron Workers President Joe Hunt, and Sheet Metal Workers President Michael Sullivan, protested the cancellation of the agreements. The "last thing" corporate owners need, Hunt said, "is the removal of agreements that provide harmony on the job."

The national AGC - the umbrella group for union and nonunion general contractors, big and small - obviously feels the same way.

"We have watched and listened carefully to the views expressed by Mr. Sweeney, Mr. Sullivan, Mr. McCarron and other involved labor leaders," Epifano wrote. "AGC does not intend to meddle in the internal affairs of the AFL-CIO. We do not purport to know the best solution to the current problem and do not wish to 'take sides.' However, AGC is not a mere bystander in this situation."

Epifano said the AGC represents thousands of union general and specialty contractors that employ tens of thousands of building trades union members.

"These contractors," he wrote, "are desperately trying to remain competitive and union-signatory at a time when owners are exerting increasingly high pressure to get projects done more quickly and more economically than ever before. It is indisputable that fears of costly and disruptive jurisdictional disputes have made many owners apprehensive about hiring union contractors."

He said the AGC joins the Construction Users Roundtable "in encouraging the union general presidents to explore all options available to resolve differences that could lead to work disruptions. Moreover, we urge all building trade leaders to expend whatever efforts are necessary to ensure labor peace to avoid work disruptions on all union jobsites, for all owners in all local areas."

Building Trades Department President Edward Sullivan said he is "hopeful that the Carpenters will re-affiliate with the AFL-CIO by the July Convention. The choice is up to UBC President McCarron. Members of our Governing Board of Presidents believe that President McCarron would best serve his members by continuing to be a participant in building a stronger national labor movement."

He added, "we have met with President McCarron numerous times to express our concern for the thousands of UBC locals and members who would be adversely affected by his decision to leave the AFL-CIO. Many of the reforms President McCarron has advocated for have already or are in the process of being resolved.

"That is why both AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and the Presidents of the Building Trades have and continue to strongly encourage him to choose re-affiliation."