Other Craft

The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America is one of the largest building trades union in the United States. One of the unions that formed the American Federation of Labor in 1886, it left the AFL-CIO in 2001. more...

Home
Knives, Swords & Blades
Militaria
Science Fiction
Tobacciana
Trading Cards
Transportation
Automobilia
Aviation
Bicycles
Boats, Ships
Commercial Ships, Tugs
Cruise Ship, Ocean Liner
Cunard
Holland America
Other Lines
White Star, Titanic
Military
Other Items
Photographs
Prints, Posters
Other Craft
Sail-Powered
Buses, Taxi Cabs
Maps, Atlases
Motorcycles
Other Transportation
Pins, Buttons
Railroadiana, Trains
Scooters
Signs
Subway
Trucks
Videos

Early years

The union was created in 1881 by a convention of carpenters' unions led by Peter J. McGuire, who served as the General Secretary of the new union for its first twenty years and its only paid officer for much of its first decade. The Brotherhood was only one of several carpenters' unions at the time: the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners, a British union, not only had a number of locals in the United States, but had formally affiliated with the AFL as well, while the United Order of American Carpenters, the Knights of Labor and local organizations of German and Irish carpenters defended their own claims to represent the carpenters in their areas. The Brotherhood slowly absorbed or eliminated these rivals, adding the word "United" to its name as a condition to its merger with the United Order.

While Peter J. McGuire was a socialist, the union itself was non-political, refusing to endorse any political party or philosophy. It was not, on the other hand, apolitical: it supported legislation establishing the eight hour day.

The union also struck to obtain the eight hour day, calling a strike of its affiliates for May 1, 1886. The strike itself was ineffective and provoked a repressive response, particularly in Chicago, where police shot and killed two strikers two days later, leading to the Haymarket Riot the following day.

Even so, the strike gave the Brotherhood added visibility that led to increased membership. The union struck again in 1890, with similarly uneven results, but now facing the stiffened resistance of newly formed employers associations.

The Brotherhood admitted both black and white carpenters on an equal footing when it was first formed; one of the union's vice-presidents in its early years was L.E. Rames, an African-American carpenter from Charleston, South Carolina. In the South, however, the union often isolated black carpenters in segregated locals as a concession to the opposition of white carpenters and contractors. Local unions also often excluded black workers on a de facto basis. The union formally dissolved its segregated locals in 1963.

The union also faced fierce pressures from outside to exclude black carpenters: in 1919 supervisors from the Great Southern Lumber Company, the mayor of Bogalusa, Louisiana, and local businessmen affiliated with the Klu Klux Klan, attacked and killed four union organizers who had attempted to organize black and white lumber mill workers. None of the attackers were convicted of any crimes.

Expansion and conflict

McGuire was forced out of office in 1901 by Frank Duffy and others after a scandal concerning his inability to account for all of the funds received by the union. Many rank and file members of the time suspected that McGuire was framed by elements within the growing bureaucracy of the Carpenters' Union, with whom McGuire had fought several political battles over their attempts to gain more power over rank and file/local union control.

Read more at Wikipedia.org