United Brotherhood of Carpenters & Joiners of America history

A few months later, carpenters in Hamilton, Ontario became the first Canadian UBC members, and Toronto Carpenters joined in early 1882.

In 1887, 700 carpenters and 400 non-union men walked off the job in Toronto over demands for a nine-hour day and a raise from 22.5 to 25 cents per hour.

He built union membership to more than 167,000 members by 1903.

McGuire remained the authoritative figure of the union until his death in 1906, when membership reached nearly 200,000.

Despite the intensive efforts of open-shop employers, membership in the Carpenters union reached 200,000 by 1910.

In Canada, the Brotherhood continued to grow with other unions joining and 1913 the UBC was the exclusive union representing carpenters.

In 1915, William L. Hutcheson ascended to the office of the presidency.

On November 7, 1917, 1,300 building trades workers in Eastern Massachusetts participated in a general strike on all military work in the area to protest the use of open-shop builders.

In April 1918, the federal government approved a new system that guaranteed union shops in those areas that had them before the war.

Contractors in Chicago insisted on a wage cut in January 1921 and locked out workers when unions rejected their demand.

In 1932, the Chicago Carpenters District Council urged the UBC national leadership to lead the fight for an unemployment insurance system, at the same time that New Deal programs began.

In 1938 Hutcheson defended the union against antitrust charges brought by Assistant Attorney General Thurman W. Arnold.

In 1950, for example, the New York District Council of Carpenters negotiated a 3 percent payroll tax to support a Carpenters Welfare Fund.

The son of a migrant worker, Hutcheson held the executive office until 1952 when membership reached a historic high of 850,000.

The idea of health and welfare funds became so attractive that the union’s Health and Welfare Committee, appointed in 1954, urged all locals to set up programs.

In 1969, 200 of the nation’s top executives formed the Business Roundtable to put a lid on construction bills.

At the UBC’s 1995 convention, delegates elected Douglas J. McCarron general president of the union.

In 2001, the UBC opened its new Washington, D.C., headquarters at 101 Constitution Ave., just across from the United States Capitol.