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Portland-based Carpenters Council formed by national mergersThe Portland-based Western Council of Industrial Workers has merged with three other councils to form the national Carpenters Industrial Council. The name change was effective July 1. The founding convention of the organization — which consolidates the Southern Council of Industrial Workers in Mississippi, the Carpenters East Coast Industrial Council in Marion, Virginia, and the Midwestern Council of Industrial Workers in Oshkosh, Wisconsin — is set for May 17-24, 2007. The council is a division of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, an affiliate of the Change to Win labor federation. The newly consolidated council will be headquartered in Portland at 12788 SE Stark St., and Mike Pieti, executive secretary of the former Western Council, will serve in that capacity for the new council. “The national Carpenters Industrial Council is being formed with a focus on structuring a union that can withstand and meet challenges of the future,” said Pieti. The building blocks, he said, are a “dynamic organizing program to bring union representation to more workers in our industry sectors whether it’s lumber, panel products, cabinets, windows or doors.” The Carpenters Industrial Council will represent approximately 26,000 workers in 15 states. The Western Council of Industrial Workers was chartered in 1985. Its predecessor was the Lumber Production and Industrial Workers, which was chartered in 1937. The Southern Council of Industrial Workers was chartered in 1967 and represented 4,400 workers. The Carpenters East Coast Industrial Council was chartered in 1996 with the merger of the Mid-Eastern and Mid-Atlantic councils and represented 3,000 workers in seven states. And the Midwestern Council was chartered in 2002 with the merging of the Midwestern Industrial Council and the Great Lakes Regional Council. It has more than 11,000 members.
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