The State - News from Dec. 4, 1985

Union carpenters in Northern California have agreed to a compromise proposal that would restore the 40-hour workweek, cut hourly pay for apprentices and loosen some work rules. The vote to accept the rollback was 4,142 in favor to 1,272 against, said a spokeswoman for the International Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners who work in Northern California’s $9-billion-a-year heavy construction industry. The proposal was worked out by the union and management in an effort to compete against non-union workers. About 7,000 union carpenters’ jobs have been lost in the region since 1975 because union contractors have been squeezed by non-union builders with lower labor costs, industry officials said. Approval of the rollback agreement by the carpenters could become a model for union laborers, cement masons and iron workers, the officials said.