Carpenters Plan Regional Alliance to Standardize Labor Conditions
Everett locals join a push to unite carpenters across the Pacific Northwest and Inter-Mountain states against the 'trade must go' anti-union movement.
A call for a convention of representatives of the different locals of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of the Northwest has been issued, to meet in Olympia on January 15th. The Washington State Council is now in its fourth year, but members realize that imaginary geographical lines guarding the political government of the state are disregarded when the interests of the brotherhood are at stake. The territory is a continuous locality, and working conditions in the Pacific Northwest and Inter-Mountain country are similar. We must protect our trade, for the edict has gone forth that the trade unions 'must go' along the Pacific Coast. If we do not more closely affiliate and intrench ourselves, those planning our destruction will believe they can annihilate us. The Olympia convention aims to organize a council covering Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia.
“We find that at present there are many more carpenters than jobs... but because there are more men working at carpenter work than there is carpenter work for men.”
This reflects the ongoing regional efforts by construction and trades unions to maintain industry-wide standards against volatile market pressures. The call for geographic solidarity beyond political borders remains a core tension in labor organizing today.
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