Meeting Notices

General membership
Meets the second Tuesday, Jan. 13, at 7 p.m. at the Carpenters Hall, 2215 N. Lombard, Portland. Portland Police Department representatives will be attending to thank the local for help on the North Precinct Community Policing Office. Initial planning for the May Day event this year will begin at the January meeting. Anyone interested should try to make the meeting.

Retirees
Retirees meet for lunch the second Monday, Jan. 12, at 11 a.m. at JJ North’s, 10520 NE Halsey, Portland.

Executive Board
Executive Board meets the fourth Tuesday, Jan. 27, at 7 p.m. at the Carpenters Hall, 2215 N. Lombard.

By Joe Baron
Local 247 Trustee & Delegate

As we enter into the New Year, let us all take a moment to reflect on what has happened in 2003 and what we can do to make 2004 better. We will be entering into an election year, which will determine if we keep an anti-union, anti worker administration in place. We all need to keep ourselves educated on what is happening in our communities, union and our country. By attending your monthly meetings (second Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m.), we will educate you on ongoing and upcoming union matters that are happening. Such as new jobs, legislation that may hurt our ability to make a living, our upcoming contract, how we can influence the process so we get a larger market share and other important matters. We have streamlined the monthly meetings by creating an agenda and eliminating the reading of all the unnecessary communications. So please, try attending a Union meeting!! Enjoy dinner on us, coffee and some lively discussion with fellow union brothers and sisters. Happy New Year to all!!

There will be a volunteer work day Jan. 24
 to aid the Bosco-Milliken Foundation.
Call the office for details.

An injury to Juan is an injury to John

By Jason Sheckler
Carpenters Local 247

Free Trade agreements such as NAFTA have cost working families in the United States an estimated 395,000 jobs, and approximately 52,000 here in Oregon. The backers of these free trade agreements state that jobs are created in Mexico. However, there are now 1 million more people in Mexico working below the minimum wages of $3.40 per day than before NAFTA (The North American Free Trade Agreement) came into effect. Eight million Mexican families have fallen out of the middle class into poverty since NAFTA was instituted in 1994.

When workers in third world countries such as Mexico try to organize they are often intimidated, killed, or threatened with death. U.S. and other multinational corporations benefit from these anti-democratic trade agreements because they can overrule the labor, environmental, health and safety laws of a nation. Laws, such as those concerning wages and hours, safety, and the environment can be considered illegal barriers to trade. Unions and workers in third world countries are fighting to stop free trade agreements such as NAFTA, the FTAA and CAFTA. Their struggles are the same as ours, but they often face more oppression and violence when fighting for safe workplaces and a living wage.

Workers in Mexico, South and Central America often find themselves with little alternative but to leave and come to work here in the United States in an attempt to provide for their families. It is important for us to realize the negative effects these trade agreements have on our working class brothers and sisters in Mexico, South and Central America. We need to support and organize these displaced workers who have found themselves with no other options. We also should support the struggles in their countries against these free trade agreements. The only way we are going to stop free trade is to organize internationally with workers by building solidarity across borders, and with displaced workers in this country that have come here in an effort to support their families.

One of the things we can do is support a labor delegation leaving for El Salvador this March to meet with organized labor fighting these agreements. We must learn from each other’s struggles to stop these free trade agreements and start building a real international labor movement. There is an election taking place in March 2004 in El Salvador, and the FMLN, the party that working people started and support, currently leads in the polls in the presidential race. The labor delegation from Portland will also be certified as official election monitors to prevent fraud and intimidation during the elections. If the FMLN wins, there is no chance that El Salvador will sign on to CAFTA, The Central American Free Trade Agreement or the FTAA, Free Trade Agreement of the Americas.

A union for everyone

By Frank J. Fontecchio, former member of Local 247,
currently a member of Local 1797 in Renton, Wash.

Did you know that most successful people in our country belong to some form of union? Doctors belong to the American Medical Association; lawyers belong to the American Bar Association. Pick a business or profession and there’s most likely an organization that exists for the benefit of that business or profession. Profit-seeking corporations are organizations that exist for the benefit of its stockholders. It's a union of stockholders. Even a basic partnership is a union. There are unions of churches! We've all heard about corrupt corporations and unions. But this does not mean all unions and corporations are corrupt. You can’t judge all unions or corporations etc., by the actions of a few. Even our politicians belong to unions. The Democrat and Republican parties are organizations working to benefit their members. Corporations have unions that represent them for their common benefit. We've all heard about the ongoing Recording Industry Association of America’s subpoenas of music file swappers. This is a union of record companies working for the benefit of its members. Belonging to a union is basic to American business.

Each year the President makes a State of the Union address to both houses of Congress. Our nation was founded as a Union of the 13 original colonies that has grown to the present 50 United States of America. Our Civil War, one of the bloodiest wars in history, was fought to preserve this Union. To be anti-Union is anti-American.

We all have a right to organize in our pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. The color of our collars doesn’t make a difference.

2004 will be a big year in politics.
Please register to vote and
talk to your friends and
family and make sure
they’re registered to vote.

Scholarship deadline:
The deadline to apply for the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters Scholarship is Feb. 27, 2004

Union members set the example

Local 247 supports the Carpenters Food Bank financially throughout the year. In addition, several members volunteer to distribute the food.

Labor history timeline
Compiled by Tom Day & Gene Lawhorn

1868 -- Possibly one of the most important historical events to take place in U.S. labor history. Ten union coal miners, members of The Workingmens’ Benevolent Society, were executed in Pottsville and Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania. Nine more would be executed within a year, all charged with murder while being members of a secret Irish society, the Molly Maguires. These men were also members of a conservative Irish benevolent society, the Ancient Order of Hibernians. A Pinkerton spy infiltrated the Hibernians with the purpose of breaking the coal miners union. So successful was his infiltration that after the execution the labor spy and strikebreaking business would become a multi-million-dollar enterprise. Spies would be seeded in almost every workplace and union in the nation. The name Pinkerton would become an anathema to all workers.

1877 -- Within a month of the execution of the so-called Molly Maguires. a railroad strike in Martinsburg West Virginia would set off the largest post-Revolutionary War insurrection in this nation’s history. Historian Philip Foner calls it the Great Labor Uprising of 1877. Workers from East Coast to West Coast would turn out in a general strike to support the striking railroad workers. In all, over 100 workers would be killed by U.S. troops and vigilantes to quell the uprising.

1881 -- Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada founded. The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners is born. On Aug. 12, P.J. McGuire becomes the first general secretary and Gabriel Edmonston the first general president. First Labor Day celebrated in New York. Carpenters Local 50 is chartered in Portland, Oregon. FOTLU President Sam Gompers visits Portland and sets up the Federated Trades Assembly.

1886 -- General strike in support of the eight-hour day begins on May 1.Tens of thousands of workers leave their jobs in the major cities of the U.S. Many are granted shorter hours without having to strike. May 3, six striking workers are killed by Pinkerton thugs at the McCormick Harvester plant in Chicago. May 4, a squad of police enter Haymarket Square to break up a demonstration protesting the murders of the previous day. Someone threw a bomb at the police, killing seven. The police open fire and kill and unknown amount, and wounding over 200. This became known as the Haymarket Massacre. May 5, in Bayview, Wisconsin, seven strikers are killed fighting for the eight-hour day. FOTLU reorganizes and becomes The American Federation of Labor (AFL). The State of Oregon becomes the first state to declare a Labor Day. The United Mine Workers of America is born. The members of the UMWA would go on to become “the shock troops of the American labor movement”

1892 -- Homestead, Pennsylvania. The Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin workers go on strike against the Andrew Carnegie owned Homestead Works. twelve mill complex employing almost 4000 workers. They take over the complex, and Carngeie sends in Pinkerton Detectives to retake the plant. After a seven hour battle the Pinkertons surrender. Seven workers and three Pinkertons were killed in the battle. State troops were called in to end the uprising, crushing the strike.

• Eugene Debs leads the American Railway Union on a strike against the Pullman Car Company. US troops are called out and break the strike. Over thirty workers were killed on the picket lines.
• The Lattimer Massacre. Nineteen striking coal miners are killed shot in the back as they peacefully march to stand picket at a mine entrance. Thirty nine more were wounded.

1898 -- Fourteen striking coal miners were killed, and twenty four wounded in a battle to prevent a train load of ‘replacement workers’(aka scabs) from being shipped in from the South. This became known as The Virden Massacre.

• The Portland Labor Press, now the Northwest Labor Press issued it first edition. The International Ladies Garment Workers Union is founded.
• United Textile workers founded
• Mother Jones, now 73 years old, leads the march of the mill Children from the textile mills of Pennsylvania to the summer home of President Teddy Roosevelt . Although Roosevelt refuses to see them the march successfully highlighted the problem of child labor and as a result many States changed laws to restrict child labor as a result.
• The Industrial Workers of the World is founded. This union was the most Unique ever founded in the history of the world. With direct action as their credo the IWW or Wobblies would put the forward back into the labor movement. From 1905 to 1920 the IWW would fight a series of battles from labor rights to free speech rights that would seek to affirm every principle set fourth in the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.

1906 -- Upton Sinclair’s classic exposure of the working conditions in the meat packing industry is published. Many people, after reading The Jungle have become vegetarians.

February 18 United Brotherhood of Carpenters Organizer, and founder, Peter J. McGuire dies.

Carpenters Union reaches 200,000 members, making it the largest trade union in the US.

146 workers, mostly women, are killed in the Triangle Shirtwaste Fire in New York City. The doors were locked to prevent union organizers from entering. Most jumped to their deaths from the 14th floor.

The great State of Oregon passes the very first minimum wage law in the Nation.

Mucklow, West Virginia 12 striking coal miners were massacred by thugs Working for the Baldwin Felts Detective Agency. December 24th in Calumet, Michigan 62 Children and 11 adults are crushed in a narrow stair case when Mahon-Wadell detectives gave a false fire alarm during a Christmas party for the children of striking copper miners. This is forever known as ‘The Christmas Massacre of 1913’

Striking coal miners in Ludlow Colorado are attacked by the Colorado National Guard on Easter Sunday as they perform a daily ritual of raising the American Flag. These miners were housed in a colony of Tents provided by the United Mine Workers. Pits were dug under the tents to keep women and children from getting hit from the bullets randomly fired by the NG and the Baldwin Felts guards. One day after the attack the bodies of 11 children and two pregnant women are discovered in the pit under a burned mattress. The Ludlow Massacre will forever be remember as one of the most heinous crimes committed against the working class in America’s History.

November 5 in Everett, Washington a boat load of Industrial Workers of the World members attempt to disembark from the Veronia, to participate in a free speech fight in Everett. They were fired on by drunken sheriff deputies in an ambush. 5 men were killed another 6 disappeared in the turbulent waters never to be seen again.

William Hutchenson is elected General President of the UBC. He becomes one of the most forceful personalities in the Labor movement. He doggedly protects the multi-dimensional jurisdiction of the working carpenter from all other trades.

Adamson Act creates a 8 hour work day for all railroad workers.IWW troubadour, Joe Hill is executed by the State of Utah in a framed up murder charge.

Year of Great violence against workers. Elaine, Arkansas on September 30

Between 100 and 500 striking cotton pickers were massacred by State Troops and vigilantes composed of the towns leading citizens.

Boston Police go on strike over low pay and terrible working conditions.

Bogalusa Massacre Four organizers for the UBC are murdered by thugs working for The Great Southern Lumber Company, owned by the Goodyear Corporation.

The Matewan Battle. Seven coal company thugs, two miners, and the town Mayor are killed as company thugs attempt to evict striking coal miners form their homes with city limits.

Matewan town Marshall Sid Hatfield and deputy Ed Chambers were executed by Baldwin Felts . The murder of these heroes of the union coal miners precipitated the largest post-civil war rebellion in US history. The Battle of Blair Mountain.

Between 10 to 20 thousand miners from the surrounding States march on the anti-union stronghold of Logan County and it’s sheriff DanChafin. US troops are again called out to quell the uprising.

Landis Decision Judge Kenesaw Landis slashes wages beyond contractors proposals and weakens the closed shop for five years.

The International Longshoreman’s Association strike for Union recognition at the Port of Portland. The pickets are attacked by police and over 500 are arrested. The Palmer Red Raids hit Portland and every known member of the IWW are arrested.

Stock market crashes sending the economy in a downward tailspin.

1930 Mother Mary Harris Jones dies at the age of 100.

The Davis-Bacon Act becomes law requiring employers to pay prevailing wages to workers of contractors and subcontractors on all public construction projects. This is one of the most important laws dealing with the construction industry and is under constant attack by big business.

Wisconsin enacts the first unemployment insurance act in the Nation.

President Roosevelt installs Francis Perkins as Secretary of Labor. She is the first woman to ever serve in a US cabinet position

1935 The National Labor Relations, or Wagner act becomes law. This is the first National law to protect a workers right to organize and bargain collectively.

1935 The Committee for Industrial Organization if formed within the American Federation of Labor. They would later become the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

Rubber workers for Goodyear, and auto workers for GM find they have more Power by sitting down on the job within factory gates than they do on the picket line. So they conduct sit down strikes and win union recognition, higher wages and better benefits.

The Byrnes Act becomes law also known as the anti-strikebreaker act. This law prevented the aid to transport of strikebreakers in interstate or foreign trade.

The Walsh-Healey Act, or the Public Contract Act also becomes law, which establishes a minimum wage, overtime pay, child and convict labor provisions, and safety regulations on all federal contracts.

GM recognizes the UAW. US steel recognizes the United Steel Workers.

10 workers killed, and over 60 wounded by Chicago Police as they peaceably march on the Republic steel works. This was the last mass execution of striking workers by authorities protecting the interest of big business. Why? Because the Movie Tone News Cameras was their to catch every detail.

CIO expelled from the AFL.

The National Apprenticeship Act Becomes law. This establishes a bureau of apprentship within the Bureau of Labor.

The Fair Labor Standards Act creates a .25 cent minimum wage and time and Half for overtime.

The Ford Motor Company recognizes the United Autoworkers of America after decades of bitter struggle. Henry Ford hired his own private security known as Ford Service Men. Their job was to beat, intimidate, and harass union organizers, and sympathizers.

Japan attacks Pearl Harbor and thus the US enters World War II. Trade Union membership increases. Women enter the workforce in large numbers.

On labor day the Liberty Ship SS Peter J. McGuire is launched at Richmond Yards in San Francisco. Liberty ships would supply US troops, and allies with supplies to fight the war.

President Roosevelt gives an executive order creating a committee on fair employment to eliminate discrimination in the war industries.

The SS Santiago Iglesias is launched in Baltimore, Maryland. Named after a Puerto Rican Senator and Union Carpenter.

Union membership reaches it historic peak of over 18,000,000 workers.

World War II ends starting the post war boom brining the standard of living up for most all Americans. Especially with Union membership.
CIO, Congress of Industrial Organizations affiliates with the World Federation of Trade Unions.

Largest Strike wave in the history of the U.S.

The Taft-Hartley Act becomes law despite a veto from President Truman. Also Known as the Labor Management Relations Act. This law would have a chilling effect on labor organizing, and labor relations. It gave States the right to outlaw the close shop. Secondary boycotts became illegal, and labor organizations have to file financial reports with the bureau of labor. United Mine Workers President John L. Lewis called the Taft-Hartley act ‘the first ugly savage thrust of fascism in America.’

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 is amended to prohibit child labor for the first time in US history.

The Congress of Industrial Organizations begin to expel union with communist leadership.

The AFL-CIO merge electing George Meany as it first President Meany rose out of the New York Plumber’s union to become great stereotypical cigar chopping union boss the media loves to hate.

The AFL-CIO expels the Teamsters, and Laundry Workers unions for corruption.

The United Brotherhood of Carpenters reaches its peak of 850,000 members

1959 The Landrum-Griffin Act, also known as The Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act becomes law. Another stab at the heart of labor, restricts certain types of picketing, and tightens restrictions on secondary boycotts.

Equal Pay Act becomes law. Prohibits wage differences based on sex.

1964 Civil Rights Act outlaws discrimination in workplace based on sex, color, religion, and National origin.

The Age Discrimination Act becomes law.

Rise of new and improved open shop drive by Big Business.

Anti-Union activity increases. The ABC and other open shop contractors gain work with double breasted shops. Lowers safety, and wage standards.

Coalition of Labor Union Women founded in Chicago.

Labor’s Community Service is founded to meet the needs of down and out Union members.

The University of Oregon establishes the Labor Education and Research Center.

1980’s Ronald Raygun and the ‘New Right’ with it’s anti-union sector gain economic and political power. BE&K, PCL, Fluor Daniel, Brown & Root, etc.

Reagan breaks the Air Traffic controllers union kicking off a large scale attack on labor unions form business all over the Nation.
Joyce Miller become the first woman appointed to the AFL-CIO executive Board.

Oregon Public Employees strike for and win pay equity for women workers.

1989 The UBC starts an intensive National training, and organizational programs.

1990s Portland Jobs with Justice is founded. Labor supported drives to raise minimum wages is successful making Oregon the highest level in the Nation.

Labor defeats a series of legislative attacks form anti ñ union forces lead by Bill Sizemore and his puppet masters of the Oregon Business Roundtable.

September 11 Terrorist attack the Pentagon, and the World Trade Centers killing over 3000 people. 17 of those murdered were union carpenters working in their daily jobs. Several escaped then returned to help with rescue efforts.

2003 IT’S ON YOU NOW! Go make history. Educate, agitate, and organize!