Painters Keep Wall Work But Blast ‘Raid’ Tactics By Richard Korman and Sherie Winston, ENR Construction
Carpenters’ union officials deny that they are trying to ‘steal’ wall finishing work
Relations between union painters and carpenters have soured again as the two trades contest the right to represent workers who perform wall finishing work, most recently in Iowa and Nebraska. The international painters’ union claims it successfully fended off the international carpenters’ union in three recent votes at small drywall firms in Des Moines and Omaha, with two more elections set July 22 in Ankeny, Iowa, and again in Omaha.
The contests put a dent in what had seemed to be improved relations between the internationals and their leaders, painters’ union President James A. Williams and carpenters’ President Douglas McCarron. “The effort to cooperate with Mr. McCarron has been to no avail,” Williams wrote to members last month.
A more far-reaching question is whether the carpenters’ union feels free to raid other union members. While it reaffiliated with the building trades unions, carpenters are still not AFL-CIO members and thus not subject to its anti-raiding rules (ENR 12/9/02 p. 11). “This wasn’t a jurisdictional dispute in Iowa but a raiding problem,” says Williams.