Picket AFL construction union job site: 1940
Congress of Industrial Union (CIO) United Construction Workers Organizing Committee workers picket an American Federation of Labor (AFL) job site February 21, 1940 at the Jelleff’s addition at 1216 F Street NW in retaliation for AFL pickets of CIO construction sites.
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.
A block away the AFL picketed a CIO job site at the Knickerbocker Hat Store at 1225 F Street NW. 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.
Note: There is damage around the edges of this image.
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.
Picket AFL construction union job site: 1940
Congress of Industrial Union (CIO) United Construction Workers Organizing Committee workers picket an American Federation of Labor (AFL) job site February 21, 1940 at the Jelleff’s addition at 1216 F Street NW in retaliation for AFL pickets of CIO construction sites.
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.
A block away the AFL picketed a CIO job site at the Knickerbocker Hat Store at 1225 F Street NW. 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.
Note: There is damage around the edges of this image.
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.