Home    Calendar of Events    Messages to Members    How We Started    Contact Us    Newsletter    Where Are We?    Interested in Membership?    Links

CHAPTER 3 — BEATING THE OPEN SHOP During the twenty-one years of McGuire's stewardship, the Brotherhood succeeded in setting union standards for carpenters on most construction sites in the United States. The struggle to achieve these goals was long and difficult. Building contractors used all the tools that employers have typically adopted to drive away unionism -- strikebreakers, blacklisting, yellow-dog contracts, violence, etc. Long after the UBCJA had established a firm foothold in the industry, contractor associations continued to attempt to undermine the union's power. For example, an aggressive nation-wide open shop counterattack was mounted in the first decade of the 20th century as employers locked out carpenters in Chicago, New York, Pittsburgh, Louisville, Houston, Milwaukee, and a number of other cities. Frank Duffy, the General Secretary who succeeded McGuire, wrote in a 1904 issue of the 'Carpenter' that building employers had "organized, combined and affiliated with one another, with the avowed purpose and firm determination of putting our local unions out of existence altogether." Yet, despite the bitterness of the conflict, the peculiar characteristics of the construction industry made organizing turn-of-the-century carpenters a possibility at a time when many other sectors of the workforce were unable to break through the barriers of anti-unionism. In 1900, as the Brotherhood was rapidly expanding, no more than six percent of the manufacturing workforce was organized -- and that group consisted almost exclusively of the small number of highly skilled operatives whose craft knowledge had not been diminished by the factory system. The difference between the organizing potential of factory vs. building trades workers is illustrated by the comments of employers in each field. In a era when a U.S. Steel executive could boast: "I have always had one rule -- if a workman sticks up his head, hit it." Otto Eidlitz, one of the nation's most powerful builders, proclaimed, "It is without question, not only the right but the duty of labor to thoroughly organize itself and it...is a power for good in the trade." The differences in viewpoints were not due to the benevolence of construction employers. Rather, the economics of the industry encouraged fair-minded builders to reach an accommodation with the unions. Short on capital and dependent on monthly progress payments, small and medium-sized contractors were unable to stockpile resources to withstand the financial strain of a long strike. Furthermore, the highly skilled nature of the work made it difficult for anti- union employers to quickly replace competent carpenters with capable strikebreakers. As a result, builders who were faced with the power of a militant and popular union ultimately chose to forego endless battles and instead, accepted agreements with local unions. Additionally, many building employers recognized the potential benefits that unions could provide in terms of apprenticeship training and a hiring hall. In a highly volatile industry with boom-and-bust cycles, employers had difficulty making long-range plans with regard to labor requirements. To the extent that unions willingly accepted the responsibility of training and supplying labor, contractors were relieved of a difficult burden. From their perspective, the positive role of the unions often outweighed the added costs of union recognition and above-average wages in the construction field. The conditions in the industry thus laid the groundwork for McGuire's brand of democratic and activist unionism to flourish in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Despite the intensive efforts of open shop employers, membership in the Carpenters Union reached 200,000 by 1910. A union card became as crucial to a self-respecting carpenter as a complete set of tools. For those who knew the industry, it was a matter of common wisdom that, "the craftsman without a card is a man without a trade." McGuire's successors -- Frank Duffy and William Hutcheson (who, as General President, presided over the Brotherhood from 1915 to 1951) -- altered the union's orientation. Less intent on carrying out McGuire's motto of "organize, agitate, educate", they emphasized the smooth administration of the union operation. Less interested in McGuire's philosophies of social change, the UBCJA under Hutcheson took on a more conservative political cast. More skeptical of broad working-class movements, Hutcheson's Brotherhood staked out a tougher position in relation to other labor unions in and out of the building trades. Conflicts over jurisdictional assignments became one of the primary methods of extending working carpenters' interests. The basic mission of the union -- protecting carpenters' rights on the job -- remained the same. With the onset of World War I, the union faced a new challenge. Wartime needs for temporary military housing, shipbuilding, and ammunition factories pushed the federal government into a massive construction spending program. When President Woodrow Wilson allowed open shop contractors on federal construction sites, Hutcheson refused to participate in the government's oversight boards. "While we have every desire to assist the Government in the crisis we are now passing through," he said, "we have no intention of waiving our rights to maintain for ourselves the conditions we have established." Despite extraordinary pressures, the union leadership held firm. On November 7, 1917, thirteen hundred building trades workers in eastern Massachusetts participated in a general strike on all military work in the area to protest the use of open shop builders. The strike persisted in the face of threats from the U.S. War Department. Influential preacher Billy Sunday whipped anti-union hysteria to a higher plane, invoking the name of God to denounce Hutcheson's treason. While that strike was settled within a week, the larger issue remained unresolved until April 1918 when the federal government approved a new system that guaranteed closed shops in those areas that had them before the war. Hutcheson's firmness preserved union standards for carpenters. As the war became a memory, attacks on the patriotism of unionists gave way to a closer examination and subsequent recognition of wartime profiteering by employers. Secretary of War, Newton Baker, (who had been a vocal critic of the UBCJA) confirmed many unionists' suspicions when he admitted that labor had been "more willing to keep in step than capital." Peace brought a new and different kind of battle. Employer associations of all kinds initiated a furious assault on union labor under the label of the "American Plan". Building employers, supported by large industrialists and local Chambers of Commerce, pitched in. They took on construction unions in Detroit, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, and Seattle. Contractors in Chicago insisted on a wage cut in January 1921 and locked out workers after the unions rejected their demand. In June, all the crafts except the Carpenters and Painters agreed to submit the dispute to arbitration by federal judge Kenesaw Landis. The judge's drastic decision slashed wages beyond the initial contractor proposals and weakened long-standing union work rules. The UBCJA refused to recognize the judgment and led the fight against the "Citizens Committee to Enforce the Landis Award" for five years until union shop conditions finally returned to Chicago. In San Francisco, the Industrial Association broke the twenty year reign of one of the country's mightiest union shops in the building trades. Financed to the tune of $1.25 million and in control of the building materials suppliers, the Builders' Exchange refused to call off a lockout even after the city's Building Trades Council meekly accepted the contractors' original wage cut demand. Determined to crush the unions, the employers of San Francisco settled for nothing less than open shop and an end to mandatory collective bargaining in the building industry. While the "American Plan" did take its toll, the San Francisco experience was unusually severe. The Brotherhood survived the 1920s. The number of union carpenters declined from 400,000 in 1920 to 345,000 in 1928, but this drop in membership compared favorably to the losses of other labor unions in the prevailing anti-labor climate. Wages in the building trades actually rose by roughly 5 percent a year. The fury of the anti-union campaigns subsided by the end of the decade. Next Chapter Back to Table of Contents