Northwest Carpenters union members recently learned of yet another reorganization of their regional council and locals.
On Jan. 28, United Brotherhood of Carpenters general president Douglas McCarron directed that locals in Oregon and Washington become part of the Northern California Carpenters Regional Council, which is being renamed the North Coast States Regional Council of Carpenters (also to be known as the North Coast States Carpenters Union). Altogether, 10 Oregon and Washington locals are being added to the Oakland-headquartered regional council: locals 503, 541, 2949, 2851, 59, 206, 360, 425, 1136, and 2761. The parts of Local 743 in Kern County, California, that are west of the Pacific Crest trail are also being added to the North Coast council. All told, that adds 24,000 union carpenters to the regional council, bringing its total membership to 57,500. McCarron also dissolved four locals in California’s central valley — locals based in Bakersfield, Visalia, and Fresno that total 2,840 members — and merged them into a newly formed Local 99 that will also be part of the North Coast regional council.
The restructuring affects members’ democratic rights because within the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, local unions don’t hire or oversee their own staff. Instead they elect delegates to regional councils, those delegates elect a secretary-treasurer, and that person hires and oversees staff. Regional councils are in charge of organizing, collective bargaining, and political action.
Since McCarron was first elected Carpenters general president in 1995, he has repeatedly dissolved, merged, split, and reorganized Carpenters locals and regional councils — throughout the region and around the nation. Under the union constitution, each time the general president orders one of those reorganizations, he has the authority to appoint the officers of the newly established or merged locals or councils.
For Portland-area members, this is the sixth time that either their local or regional council was restructured in the last 15 years.
Until 2023, Oregon and Washington locals belonged to the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters together with locals from Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Alaska. In June 2023, the Pacific Northwest council was dissolved and its locals were added to the Southwest Mountain States Regional Council of Carpenters, which also represented locals in Southern California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado. The merged regional council was renamed the Western States Regional Council of Carpenters. With the latest reorganization, Western States Regional Council now loses Oregon and Washington but keeps Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Alaska.
Meanwhile, for nearly 30 years Portland-area construction carpenters were members of Carpenters Local 247 — from its formation in 1982 from the merger of locals 1020 and 226 until 2011, when McCarron merged Local 247 with five other Oregon and Southwest Washington locals to become Local 156. Local 156 lasted just over three years, and was split up in September 2014 into Local 1503 for the Portland metro area and Southwest Washington, and Local 271 for the rest of Oregon. In 2023, Local 1503 and seven other locals in Oregon and Washington were dissolved and reconstituted into five newly chartered locals. Since then carpenters and drywall hangers in Multnomah, Clackamas, Washington, Columbia, and Clatsop counties in Oregon, and Clark, Skamania, Wahkiakum, and Cowlitz counties in Washington have been in Local 503. Carpenters in all other Oregon counties are in Local 541.
That 2023 reorganization left untouched two specialist locals in the Northwest: Millwrights Local 96, headquartered in Kent, Washington, and Pile Drivers Local 196, headquartered in Fife, Washington. McCarron has now dissolved those locals too. Effective Feb. 2, 535-member Millwrights Local 96 is merging into Local 102, headquartered in Livermore, California, and 888-member Piledrivers Local 196 is merging into Local 34, headquartered in Oakland, California.
As part of the same Jan. 28 order, McCarron also dissolved three other Northern California locals and merged them into other nearby locals that are part of the North Coast regional council.
In a Feb. 2 letter to members, North Coast States Regional Council of Carpenters executive secretary treasurer Jay Bradshaw said the massive reorganization is meant to make the union stronger and more efficient, eliminating duplicate efforts and expenses.
