Business
& Labor
Laborers,
Engineers Bolt Building Trades
(enr.construction.com - 02/20/06)
Two more disaffected construction trade
unions, the laborers and the operating engineers, announced
Feb. 14 that they will leave the AFL-CIO's Building and Construction
Trades Dept., effective March 1. They will form a new organization,
the National Construction Alliance. Union presidents claim
the department has not been effective in reversing membership
declines and changing old practices that have hurt the union
cause.
Laborers' President Terry O'Sullivan
says the new alliance also includes the carpenters' and teamsters'
unions, which both previously withdrew from BCTD, as well
as the bricklayers' and ironworkers' unions. A spokesman for
ironworkers' President Joe Hunt did not confirm the union
joining the alliance. He says ironworkers will remain in the
building trades, but will also "keep a close relationship
with the laborers and operating engineers."
O'Sullivan claims union representation
of construction workers has dropped from 40% in 1973 to 13%
last year. "We must, and we will, pursue a course of
action that best serves the interests of our members, locals
and industry," said operating engineers President Vincent
J. Giblin. The unions did not announce immediate withdrawal
from the umbrella AFL-CIO.
BCTD Secretary-Treasurer Sean McGarvey
says the department had agreed to three of the four alliance
demands before the union pullout but rejected its call to
restructure the department and replace its top leadership.
"I respect both of these unions, but this was the wrong
decision," he says.
