United Brotherhood of Carpenters is scrapping its two-decade-old women’s committee. That decision was made to avoid legal action by the Trump administration, Carpenters general president Douglas McCarron wrote in a May 5 memo to district vice presidents.
“As you are well aware, current executive orders and policies targeting identity-based initiatives put our program ‘Sisters in the Brotherhood’ and its structure at legal risk,” McCarron wrote. McCarron said a “realignment” is necessary as a result.
The memo didn’t say what the legal risk is, and neither the national union nor the Western Regional Council returned calls from the Labor Press.
It’s illegal for employers or unions to discriminate on the basis of race, sex, and other characteristics, but the union’s Sisters in the Brotherhood (SIB) committees never did that. To help recruit and retain female members and make the union more welcoming to women, Carpenters locals have sponsored SIB committees since as far back as 1998. The groups were never exclusive, and welcomed participation by male members as well. As of April as many as 160 locals in the United States and Canada had SIB committees. Through SIB, women members build community and get active in union political and charitable work. The international union gave SIB substantial support over the years, including staff time and a national structure, quarterly Zoom meetings, and in-person conferences about every three years.
The May 5 memo says SIB committees will be replaced with a new “Member Engagement Program,” but details of what that means have not been announced, and SIB committee meetings around the country have been canceled.
The union has also moved swiftly to cut off commitments that SIB committee members cherished.
Just a week before an annual career fair for women in the trades, the Western Regional Council of Carpenters notified the event organizer Oregon Tradeswomen that it would be rescinding its sponsorship, would not contribute the $10,000 it had pledged, and would not be taking part in the event. Event posters and t-shirts for the event had already been printed. The pull-out came as a total shock, since Carpenters had been a key supporter of Oregon Tradeswomen.
Then on May 15, another McCarron memo announced that the union is pulling out of an immensely popular national conference for tradeswomen.
“In an effort to continue to protect our membership and given the current executive orders and policies targeting identity-based initiatives, it has been decided that the UBC will not participate in the Tradeswomen Build Nations Conference this year,” McCarron wrote.
Tradeswomen Build Nations is the largest gathering of unionized tradeswomen in the world. Last year in New Orleans it drew more than 5,200 attendees.
This year’s gathering will take place in Chicago Sept. 19-21. Whatever legal risk frightened the Carpenters doesn’t appear to have spooked any other unions.
Carpenters members will still be attending, but they’ll be there without the support of their union. Locals are reportedly barred from contributing funds to send members to the conference. Some Carpenters members are planning on attending as individuals through fundraising and paying their own way.
The chill may also extend to union participation in Pride events.
Carpenters Local 503 already paid for a booth at the upcoming July 19-20 Portland Pride Festival, but SIB committee members were told that the union won’t be attending in any official capacity and won’t allow official union literature or banners to be displayed at the event, following orders from on high.
Several SIB supporters told the Labor Press that the name change and the canceled commitments have damaged morale and sparked something of a backlash.
Even before it became official in the May 5 memo, word of the planned changes leaked out. Fourteen retired former SIB leaders from a dozen locals signed a May 1 letter to McCarron and the Carpenters Executive Board urging them to support the work of SIB and not to change its name.
“The impact to our female members of taking away the Sisters name will be deeply negative and consequential,” the letter said. “Whatever the intent is, the message will be that women aren’t supported in the UBC. That may mean women not joining our union. It may mean women leaving the UBC. It may mean active members cease to volunteer for union events. It may mean local SIB groups leave the UBC, and re-form, separate from our union. None of these are good outcomes.”
As news spread of the name change and the decision to pull out of Tradeswomen Build Nations, SIB supporters began introducing and passing resolutions at local general membership meetings calling for continued support for SIB and restored participation in Tradeswomen Build Nations. By the June 19 deadline for submitting convention resolutions, at least 10 locals had passed the resolutions, including Local 503 in Oregon. They plan to take those resolutions to the union’s international convention Aug. 18-21 in Las Vegas.
This is either rank cowardice on the part of the carpenters, or the male leadership doing something that they really wanted to do anyways. Either option impugns them.
I agree. I wonder if there are any solidarity events planned for our NW siblings who were planning to attend Tradeswomen Build Nations and now face paying their own way?
It’s both, I feel. “Sister” isn’t even a banned word, just like “Brother” isn’t.
As a UBC member, specifically of Local 503, I can tell you this is not a decision supported by the rank and file carpenters.
The word “complicit” comes to mind.
So I guess we are now going to become the UNITED PEOPLEHOOD OF CARPENTERS? Or is it only “one way”just like McCarron , He never truly supported the sisters anyway…. Or the brothers for that matter.
Why is this article so one sided? Who are you getting this version of the story from? Nobody active with the Local or anyone official from the Council or UBC cause your facts are out of wack. Local 503 membership still has a committee meeting led by the same sisters with full support of their local and council. The OTW situation didn’t happen how you stated it, nor the Pride booth. WOW Oh well. Guess it’s clickbait.
The article contains quotes from McCarron’s memo that seem pretty straightforward. I’m not sure how reporting on his actual words is “clickbait”.
The title is inciteful. Then you get the memo quotes. Sure. Using specific quotes without full context and not getting the story from the Local Leadership that they’re referring to is certainly one-sided. Not mentioning that this same local has their own pre-apprenticeship program that just graduated a class of women, that their sisters still have a committee focused on them and could still have attended pride. It’s almost like they got their info from someone that got fired that either doesn’t know or intentionally left those facts out. Or maybe it’s a sister thats been disgruntled for a decade? Or maybe and even worse, they got it from social media posts from other people that don’t know facts. Hmmmm. Looks like they took advantage of a coincidence and reported it as deliberate as fact. But I guess since you can’t say “pulls the plug on its sisters” and still report those real examples of continued support as facts too. Sisters are mad at a name change? Or cause they don’t get a free trip to Chicago? We can still attend that conference in Chicago. We can pay our own way like we did before, many times. The UBC or the councils weren’t paying before so now it’s a big deal? Now that there’s REAL dedicated focus on the fact that our sisters aren’t working enough hours (retention) and trying to find allies in the field to help and that’s what sisters REALLY need, but just because they call it something else besides sisters in the Brotherhood… everybody losing their collective minds. It’s sad and it’s divisive. That’s worse than clickbait.
Retired Machinist Local 63
This is disturbing. We should be standing together. Not letting the threats from
the administration separate us. Standing together, all of us.
Yes! And we need to be uniting with other unions to have any defense against pending and current attacks. Isolationism was good for a while but this fight is too big.