THE WORKPLACE : Carpenters Pullout Reflects Strain in Construction Union Membership

The carpenters union recently pulled out of local building trades councils from San Diego to Los Angeles. The building trades councils are the umbrella group for the construction unions.

Relations between the powerful carpenters union and the other construction unions have become increasingly strained as they compete for what’s left of union construction work in Southern California and argue over how to increase their memberships.

The carpenters have been aggressively signing up workers, some of whom, other unions say, belong to them. The carpenters, those other unions complain, have also given away hard-won union gains in wages and benefits in negotiations with contractors.

Douglas J. McCarron, president of Southern California’s District Council of Carpenters in Los Angeles, said the other unions don’t seem to understand that the home-building industry, which tossed out its unions 10 years ago, has become a low-wage business with virtually no benefits; unions have to adjust to that when they try to entice contractors into the union tent again.

But the main reason McCarron pulled the carpenters out, he said, was because the building trades councils “weren’t doing enough labor organizing. . . . It’s a leadership problem.”