Operating Engineers 701, Carpenters form alliance

Operating Engineers Locals 701 in Oregon and sister Locals 302 and 612 in Washington have teamed up with the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters to create the Northwest Regional Council of the National Construction Alliance II.

The new NWNCA has approximately 35,000 members —20,000 carpenters and 15,000 operators. The Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters represents carpenters, piledrivers, drywallers, millwrights, trade show workers, shipwrights, exterior/interior specialists, scaffold erectors, insulators, and related craftworkers.

Operating Engineers is an affiliate of the AFL-CIO and the Carpenters Union belongs to the Change to Win labor federation. Neither of the international unions are affiliated with the National Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO.

In forming the Northwest NCA, Operating Engineers and Carpenters locals in Washington State disaffiliated from the Washington State Building Trades Council.

Operating Engineers Local 701, a statewide local based in Gladstone, disaffiliated from the Oregon BCTC more than a year ago. Most Carpenters Union locals left the state building trades council when Change to Win was formed.

Mark Holliday, business manager of Local 701, is hopeful the new alliance will be more nimble and better equipped to adapt to changes in the industry. “Our priorities don’t always align with the other trades,” Holliday said. “And as a consequence, our concerns often don’t get addressed.”

Holliday said many of the local’s signatory contractors “are glad to hear of the new alliance and believe we’re moving in the right direction.”

Doug Tweedy, executive secretary-treasurer of the Northwest Regional Council of Carpenter, said NWNCA “is the manifestation of the desire to continue our member unions’ progress toward more productive relationships with our contractors and away from the adversarial and sometimes antagonistic posture that some labor organizations maintain.”

Union officials say the new alliance will have a better ability to negotiate project labor agreements with contractors.

“We want what our contractors want,” said Ernie Evans, business manager of Washington Operating Engineers Local 612. “We are committed to providing a highly-skilled workforce enabling contractors to finish projects on time and within budget. Our goal is to ensure harmony on every project and value to every contractor.”

The Northwest Regional Council of the National Construction Alliance II’s Web site says its purpose is three-fold:

1. A mutually beneficial relationship with signatory contractors;

2. Reduce costly labor disputes that can slow and stop work;

3. Provide members with living wages and medical benefits that protect and support them and their entire family.

The first National Construction Alliance was formed in early 2006 on the East Coast by the international unions of the Carpenters and Operating Engineers. Officials said the NCA is modeled after the former National Heavy and Highway Alliance.

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