Protest CIO construction union job site: 1940
American Federation of Labor (AFL) building trades members picket a job site organized by the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) United Construction Workers Organizing Committee at 703 H Street NE March 1, 1940.
The AFL unions charged that the CIO was performing the work at substandard wages—a charge denied by the CIO union that said its members received the same wages as those at AFL non-government construction jobs.
The CIO union retaliated by picketing AFL job sites.
The United Construction Workers were a brief-lived (1939-46) attempt by the Congress of Industrial Organizations to organize construction workers across craft lines into an industrial union.
Building trades unions have traditionally been organized into separate crafts of skilled workers dating back to the 1800s.
While the group obtained some contracts with employers, it was never able to achieve widespread success and the effort was abandoned after World War II.
In more recent times, the Carpenters Union split with the AFL-CIO and the rest of the building trades in 2001, largely over jurisdictional awards that went against them. The Carpenters position was that they spent resources and organized the workers, but other unions gained them as members. The other building trades unions accused the Carpenters of raiding them.
Meanwhile the percentage of construction work performed under union contract has continued to decline.over the years.
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/p/2gXB7oi
The photographer is unknown. The image is a Washington Daily News photograph courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.
Protest CIO construction union job site: 1940
American Federation of Labor (AFL) building trades members picket a job site organized by the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) United Construction Workers Organizing Committee at 703 H Street NE March 1, 1940.
The AFL unions charged that the CIO was performing the work at substandard wages—a charge denied by the CIO union that said its members received the same wages as those at AFL non-government construction jobs.
The CIO union retaliated by picketing AFL job sites.
The United Construction Workers were a brief-lived (1939-46) attempt by the Congress of Industrial Organizations to organize construction workers across craft lines into an industrial union.
Building trades unions have traditionally been organized into separate crafts of skilled workers dating back to the 1800s.
While the group obtained some contracts with employers, it was never able to achieve widespread success and the effort was abandoned after World War II.
In more recent times, the Carpenters Union split with the AFL-CIO and the rest of the building trades in 2001, largely over jurisdictional awards that went against them. The Carpenters position was that they spent resources and organized the workers, but other unions gained them as members. The other building trades unions accused the Carpenters of raiding them.
Meanwhile the percentage of construction work performed under union contract has continued to decline.over the years.
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/p/2gXB7oi
The photographer is unknown. The image is a Washington Daily News photograph courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.