Carpenters may be close to nailing contract

Union leadership votes expected after 14 months of back-and-forth between 25,000 carpenters and the contractors who hire them.

By Daniel Massey

A seemingly never-ending labor saga that has left 25,000 carpenters without a contract for the last 14 months could be nearing an end.

The executive board of the New York City District Council of Carpenters is expected to vote Wednesday on a contract proposal by the Association of Wall-Ceiling and Carpentry Industries, a collection of contractors that employs more than half of the union's members. If the union board OKs the deal, the agreement could be presented to the union's 100-member delegate body for approval as soon as Wednesday evening. It's not clear if the union's rank-and-file members will be given the chance to ratify the contract.

"We've made a proposal," said John DeLollis, executive director of the contractors' association, though he declined to offer specifics other than to say it includes a controversial clause that allows contractors to hire union members without official referrals from the carpenters union. "I'm hopeful it goes through, and we'll have a deal after 20 months of negotiations."

A spokesman for the District Council of Carpenters said that contract negotiations were "ongoing" and declined to comment further.

The workers' contracts expired June 30, 2011, and have been extended numerous times to allow for continued negotiations. The latest expiration date is Aug. 31. Tentative deals were reached at one point, but in March, union members soundly rejected contracts with four industry associations, including Wall-Ceiling, largely because they included the hiring clause, known in union circles as "full mobility."

Contractors have pushed for the provision, which would allow them to bypass the union out-of-work list and select any member of the District Council to work for them. The current system compels them to hire at least one-third of their workers via union referrals.

Contractors have argued that full mobility will save them money by increasing productivity. But union members contend that it will kill important protections like seniority.

The deals that were rejected by the union members were negotiated by the union's previous leadership. The new executive secretary-treasurer of the union, Mike Bilello, argued against full mobility during his election campaign last year but may be forced to back off that position to forge a deal.

A blog run by a union delegate reported that the head of the Wall-Ceiling association made a presentation to delegates in late July in which he said he would offer a wage and benefits bump of $13.13 per hour, or 15.4%, to around $90 an hour, over five years, in exchange for full mobility and several other provisions.

Those terms were rejected by the union's leadership, says Dennis Walsh, a federally appointed monitor who watches over the union. He said any deal that includes full mobility would likely have to include a monetary sweetener. "It boils down to money," Mr. Walsh said. "There's strong sentiment against full mobility, and if the money is not adequate, they're not going to get the 50.1% of the delegates to drop their objection."

Mr. Walsh called the Wall-Ceiling deal "the benchmark contract for the carpenters union" and suggested other deals could follow if that one is hammered out.

(John's note: This video was originally posted March 18, 2012.)