The Old Testament talks of a great battle between the future king of Israel, David, and Goliath, champion of the Philistines. In this tale David hurls his sling with all his might and hits Goliath in the forehead, knocking him to the ground. David then takes Goliaths sword and cuts off his head. Davids faith caused him to look at the giant from a different perspective, unfortunately the KC District Council's David was unable to stop the giant McCarron Goliath during their dismantling. In the abrupt action taken recently by the UBC, St Louis UBC leader Terry Nelson absorbs a portion of the KC District Council. In a recent letter addressing the KC/STL merger, Nelson finds the principal of fraternity meets the order of the day. In a letter which starts, "Dear brothers and sisters," Nelson cites the UBC constitution's section 6(a) grants GP McCarron the authority to dissolve District Councils with the stroke of a pen. Is Nelson embracing a fraternal tone? Remember Nelson dismissing the notion of fraternity in the Illinois Business Journal?
"We (the Carpenters' union) live and die on our business-like approach. We run our union like most companies run a business. We are not running a fraternal organization and all this other BS," said Nelson (IBJ April 2008)
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Download the 
KC/STL Merger Letter
(We apologize for the skew on this image - most of what we get from the St Louis CDC leadership has a skew)
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If you follow Nelson closely the contradictions of his actions and rhetoric become so obvious as to appear ridiculous. The foundation of trust within the organized labor community is built upon a stable and consistent philosophy based on the general welfare of rank-and-file members. Terry Nelson has evolved into a McCarron soldier and the St Louis UBC has morphed into a company union run by its signatory contractors. During an interview with St Louis Building Trades leader Jerry Feldhuas over the the AGC's withdrawal from the PRIDE Labor - Management cooperative, Feldhaus cites Nelsons control over the AGC as one of the primary reasons. However, based on all that has taken place in St Louis since November of 2007, we believe the opposite is true, Nelson is controlled by the AGC. To assist our union carpenter brothers and sisters we have added section 6(a) of the UBC Constitution here, absent from the Nelson letter:A. Section 6. The jurisdiction of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America shall include all the branches of the Carpenter and Joiner trade, the industrial sector, and any kind of work being performed by any members of the United Brotherhood. In it shall be vested the power through the International Body to establish and charter subordinate Local and Auxiliary Unions, District, Regional, Industrial, State and Provincial Councils in all branches of the trade, and its mandates must be observed and obeyed at all times.
In view of technological developments and industrial diversification, no type of employment category shall be excluded from the jurisdiction of the United Brotherhood, whether or not spelled out in Section 7.
The United Brotherhood is empowered, upon agreement of the Local Union and Councils directly affected, or in the discretion of the General President subject to appeal to the General Executive Board, where the General President finds that it is in the best interests of the United Brotherhood and its members, locally or at large, to establish or dissolve any Local Union or Council, to merge or consolidate Local Unions or Councils, to establish or alter the trade or geographical jurisdiction of any Local Union or Council, to form Councils and to permit, prohibit or require the affiliation with or disaffiliation from any Council by any Local Union, including the right to to establish statewide, province wide and regional Local Unions or Councils having jurisdiction over specified branches or subdivisions of the trade, The vested rights of the members shall be preserved and where action as herein described is taken, the General President and General Executive Board shall preserve the membership rights of the members of affected Local Unions, including their right to attend and participate in meetings, to vote, to nominate candidates and to be nominated and run for office. In connection with the foregoing, the General President may, upon finding it appropriate, appoint a committee to hold hearings upon due notice to directly affected Local Unions or Councils, and make finding and recommendations.
However it is section 6(d) that should be most disturbing to the former KC District Council members:
The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America shall have the right to establish supervision over and to conduct the affairs of any subordinate body (including the removal of any or all officers of such subordinate body) to correct financial irregularities or to assure the performance of collective bargaining agreements and the responsibility of the subordinate body as a bargaining agent or to protect the interests and rights of the members or whenever the affairs of the subordinate body are conducted in such a manner as to be detrimental to the welfare of the members and to the best interests of the United Brotherhood, subject, however, to the provisions of Paragraph H of Section 10. The authority granted to the United Brotherhood herein includes the authority to establish supervision to prevent secession or disaffiliation by any subordinate body or bodies.
In Nelsons letter to his membership he states, "Since the Kansas City District Council no longer exists the position of Local Union delegate to the former council also does not exist." Why? If the "management teams" from both Councils are working together to make this a smooth merger as Nelson states in his letter posted here, then why the need to replace the KC delegates? If it smells like a fish; looks like a fish; tastes like a fish, then it might be a fish! Nelson cites section 10(m):
The General President shall have authority to appoint interim officers of newly established, consolidated or merged Local Unions or Councils
As pointed out by IBEW business representative Eric Miller in an interview for the St Louis Powercast, labor union administrative structures are a microcosm of our national government; with checks and balances meant to ensure fairness and accountability. IBEW Representative Miller stresses 'transparency' as one of the hallmarks of union government. Yet for members of the KC UBC District Council, this merger is anything but transparent. UBC member Doug Cornett's distress over the KC/STL merger is palpable in his blog, RECLAIM OUR RIGHTS where Brother Cornett writes,
"I have read the newspaper statements, it is not just local people, there has been news media coverage in St. Louis and across the nation and I urge everyone to seek them out on the web and read them ALL! I DO have a problem with the UBC stated reason that they are CONSOLIDATING our District Council to save costs and to provide better service to our membership line. OUR membership did NOTHING WRONG! The most recent article stating that Terry’s REMOVAL had nothing to do with his great leadership is COMPLETE BULLSHIT!"
And in an article titled LABOR'S NEW DEAL - DOUGLAS MCCARRONS RAW DEAL FOR THE UBCJA, a UBC member has this to say regarding McCarron's consolidation of power:
I would like to make it very clear right now, that what I am getting ready to talk about does not involve every Regional Council, Executive Officer, or Officer at a local. We have been infiltrated with McCarron representatives at every level. These are men and women who believe and work towards McCarron’s plan and takeover of the UBCJA. Some of our representatives and members are still passionately unaware of the New Global Union plan for our UBCJA by McCarron.
At face value the KC/STL consolidation is easy to sell as a merger, but look closer and you find an ongoing consolidation of power under GP McCarron and the slow decay of the democratic rights of rank-and-file carpenters everywhere. Over the years some Local unions have tried to fight such consolidations. In 1997 UBC Local 34 tried to block their elimination in a much publicized court battle linked here. Most Local 57 Facts readers are not attorneys and documents of this nature can be daunting to the casual observer, but there are interesting aspects of the battle that gave us pause - here is one section that seems to have some validity for signatory GC's from the KC District Council:
Local 34 argues that the affiliation directive fails this test for two reasons. First, according to Local 34, the affiliation directive necessarily raises a "question concerning representation," which in turn would allow employers to walk away from existing Local 34 contracts, thus jeopardizing the livelihood of Local 34's membership. In light of this catastrophic result, Local 34 declares that the affiliation order is irrational. Second, Local 34 contends that the affiliation effectively modifies numerous provisions of Local 34's existing contractual obligations without affording Local 34's members their contractually-guaranteed opportunity to ratify such modifications.
In connection with the first argument, Local 34 points to 27 affidavits it has gathered from Northern California contractors. Of these contractors, all of whom are signatories to collective bargaining agreements with Local 34, 19 state that they will consider themselves released from their contractual obligations should the affiliation move forward. The remaining 8 state that they "may" consider themselves released. According to Local 34, the departure of only the 19 contractors who have announced their intention [**20] to walk away from the Local 34 agreements would result in a loss of 19,000-30,000 hours of work for Local 34 members per month, which would translate into hundreds of jobs for Local 34's members. This job loss, in turn, would result in the irretrievable loss of certain pension and health benefits.
As can be seen from the link, the order was vacated. It was odd to us that the supreme court could see the UBC General Executive Board as a valid entity to hear the appeal of Local 34, yet precedence forms common law and in this case Goliath defeats David. Here is more on SELF-GOVERNANCE:
It can be used to describe a people or group being able to exercise all of the necessary functions of power without intervention from any authority which they cannot themselves alter.
It is not the UBC's autonomy that is troubling, but rather the absence of democratic rights for its members. Combine this with the continually narrowing administrative structures under McCarrons consolidation of power and you indeed have a corporation, not a union. The UBC's ability to instantly eliminate any one of their leaders should also be a warning to Terry Nelson himself should the day arrive when he gets cross-ways with GP McCarron.
As for the rank-and-file members of the UBC that pay Nelsons salary, perhaps one will have the perspective akin to David gained through faith in their brothers and sisters!
