The Union organizes for
collective bargaining strength in an effort to influence the construction market
and negotiate a higher standard for all construction workers. Facts show that in
construction markets where the majority of the workers are unionized, those
workers enjoy higher wages and better benefits because contractors must
negotiate with those workers as a group. If the group controls the supply of
labor, they are in a better position to establish the wages and benefits in
their area.
Since 1881, the Union’s
objectives have been to:
·Organize all construction workers so they can have a unified voice
in the workplace.
·Encourage training programs for a higher standard of
skill, productivity
and quality on the job.
·Develop, improve and enforce safe/clean
working conditions.
·Cultivate friendship among workers and help improve our
communities.
·Assist each other to secure employment.
·Reduce the hours of daily labor, so we can rest on the weekend.
·Secure adequate pay for our labor, including a
benefit package containing
health care coverage which includes your family,
and pension for retirement.
·Take wages out of the competition for jobs, so they are not based
on who will work for less.
·Elevate the moral,
intellectual and social
conditions for all construction workers.
Carpenters’ Bill of Rights
and Responsibilities
All working people have a
right to:
·A good job with benefits
·a living wage that can support a family
·Security and dignity in work and retirement
·A safe and secure workplaceEducation and training to
reach your full potential
With these rights come
responsibilities:
·Being a productive worker, efficient worker
·Producing work of the highest quality. Work that you stand behind
·Improving your communities
·Helping fellow workers achieve safety and security in the
workplace
·Being active citizens and informed voters
Under the protection of
the United States government, National Labor Relations Act, Section 7:
All employees shall have the
right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to
bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to
engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or
other mutual aid or protection, and shall also have the right to refrain from
any or all such activities except to the extent that such right may be affected
by an agreement requiring membership in a labor organization as a condition of
employment as authorized in section8(a)(3).
Section 8(a)(1)
It shall be unfair labor
practice for an employer to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the
exercise of rights guaranteed by section 7.
Section 8(a)(3)
Forbids an employer to
discriminate against employees "in regard to hire or tenure of employment or any
term or condition of employment to encourage or discourage membership in any
labor organization."
This means that construction
workers have a free choice whether or not to organize. Anything that an employer
does to interfere with this choice is against the law.
