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:: Saturday, August 16, 2003 ::

AFL-CIO Executive Council: Affiliation of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters
August 06, 2003 Chicago, Ill.

For the past two-and-a-half years, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters has been disaffiliated from the national AFL-CIO, and until recently, from the Building and Construction Trades Department of the Federation.

This issue has caused significant concerns for members of building trades unions whose jobs depend on working closely with the union members of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters.

Every attempt to convince the Carpenters to re-affiliate has failed, despite extensive good-faith efforts by the President and other officers of the AFL-CIO and by the leadership of the building trades unions.

In February 2003, the Executive Council unanimously instructed the President of the AFL-CIO to seek, once more, a reconsideration of this position by the Carpenters. These attempts failed.

This disaffiliation now causes significant problems for the construction unions and for the Building Trades Department, because they must choose between enforcing the requirements of the AFL-CIO constitution and causing enormous discord at the job sites, or permitting the Carpenters to continue to violate the basic principles of trade union solidarity.

The President of the AFL-CIO has taken every reasonable step to try to remedy this problem. We applaud his efforts and his patience. We once again call on the leadership of the Carpenters union to re-join the house of labor.

The Executive Council will monitor this situation and re-consider this matter when appropriate.

posted 10:48 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::

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