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LOCAL News :: Labor

CARPENTERS RANK AND FILE TAKES BACK ANOTHER YEAR

MAY 6, 2004

RANK AND FILE TAKES ANOTHER YEAR BACK,
By Cliff Willmeng, Member, Local 1

With the most diverse crowd to ever attend the Rally For Retirement, Carpenters For A Rank And File Union succeeded for the second year straight to get the age of unpenalized retirement reduced in the Chicago carpenters union. With our campaign now a little over a year and a half old, Chicago carpenters can now retire at 60 years of age without fear of penalty to their hard earned retirement funds, down from the original age of 62. Thanks to the effort and dedication of thousands of apprentice, journeyman, and retired carpenters, the membership of the Chicago District Council have in effect, been given back two years of their lives from the sweat and toil we experience daily on our work sites. For people with one of the most dangerous occupations in the country, these will be years with friends and family that previously could have been taken only with a 10% penalty incurred to their hard earned retirement fund.

Despite weather calling for storms and hail, nearly 150 carpenters assembled on the Chicago District Council to petition and demand 30/55 AND OUT!, an end to the 175 hour benefit cap, a more fair out of work system, a decrease in the executive level salaries of their representatives, and the right to vote on their business representatives and their 2005 contract. We came with banner and bullhorn, friends and family, to make our voice clear and heard to a District Council long alienated from its own membership. Mike Zupan, a working carpenter and elected delegate presented petitions calling for 30/55 AND OUT! to the council from inside of their allocation meeting. The names of member carpenters numbered over 5900.

While rank and file carpenters assembled in the street and up to the front door of the District Council, most all delegates entered the meeting through a side door to avoid contact with us. The rally kicked off about 6:15 PM and did not break up until Brother and fellow Rank And File member Mike Zupan emerged with the news that our retirement had been reduced for the second year in a row.

The May 6 rally took on characteristics different from last years, one of them being the presence and voice of over 70 Latino brothers in the trade. Not only did these carpenters swell our ranks, they added for the first time ever chants, speeches and demands in Spanish. Many had built their own signs and called for greater Latino presence and accountability in the Chicago District Council after being snubbed with unaccountable reps for years. At one point in the pumped-up atmosphere of the boisterous crowd, four Latino carpenters standing side by side holding signs, began to do a systematic dance / walk towards the security guarded front door. They did their walk side by side, all the way to the very edge of the glass window, as three Carpenters officials and a security guard were looking out at them. At the point of almost pressing their faces into the glass, all of the officials and even the security guard stepped back from the window. Up next to the glass, they made faces at the spectators inside, then turned around 180 degrees and walked back toward the crowd of Carpenters about four steps, at which point (still in formation side by side) they bent over slightly showing the officials their back-sides, in a very obvious and symbolic gesture of " kiss my ass “!

Police were present for the majority of the rally, but their numbers trailed off as the night went on. By 7:00, carpenters blocked half of Erie Street off, while people took turns on the bullhorn in Spanish and English. Although traffic was slowed by our presence, and the diners at the bistro restaurant had to eat under a roar, the two remaining police officers did nothing. (It has been spoken to us that the police, who worked for years without a city contract, have similar problems of accountability with their union.) At one point a daughter of one of the carpenters, who could not have been ten years old took hold of the bullhorn and started hollering, “30 – 55 AND OUT!”. When she didn’t get the response she had wanted she yelled back at the assembled carpenters, “Come on - I can’t hear you!” She got everyone laughing and shouting again. What an asset to working people that girl will be!

Issues that were addressed during the rally ranged from the retirement age to the elimination of the 175-hour benefit cap, and from the executive level salaries of our appointed officials to our right to vote on business agents and directly ratify our contract. Brother Cliff Willmeng talked about what a real strike would look like in the Chicago carpenters union and the need to turn the labor movement around in this time of retreat.

The reaction from the District Council was predictable, given their attitude toward the membership and our campaign for many years. One of the first things that we found was that the Council had forced one of our appointed organizers to stand out there in the rally video taping all of our actions. This happened to be the Latino organizer that the council had forced upon the Latino brothers demanding more representation. Throughout the whole rally, members took turns calling this brother out for what he is – just another agent of the ivory tower. Being that we had the LM2 forms with every District Council appointed figure there it was quickly made know how this organizer was being compensated by his bosses – a $96,000 a year salary. The Latinos especially made their voice heard on this.

With a turn out of about 150, a hell of a noise was made and it was demonstrated to our union officials that the Rank And File is not going away. More 30/55 AND OUT! t shirts and more flyers and literature were taken than in any other previous gathering we have ever had. The sites will be buzzing with this for a while.

So while the council continues to give itself executive level salaries, and while the International campaigns away for the union buster George Bush, the Rank And File has also become a vision of its own. Facing greater unemployment, tougher access to benefits, an increasingly out of touch union bureaucracy and a more single minded contractor’s association, the need for members to organize on our own behalf grows by the day. On May 6, Carpenters For A Rank And File Union took back one more year for the carpenters of the Chicago District Council. Given the obstacles placed in front of us by actuaries, bureaucrats, lawyers and B.A.s, this cannot be seen as anything but a victory for tool carrying carpenters. Two years in the making and what a distance we’ve come.

Congratulations to all of the brothers and sisters that have made this campaign and this caucus possible. You are truly the stuff that movements are made of.
 
 

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