RESPONSE TO McCARRON'S RESOLUTION 70 STATEMENT

    UNITED BROTHERHOOD OF     SCREWED CARPENTERS

Richard D Dorrough

    Royally Screwed UBC Member

 

    Statement Of A Rank And File UBC Member In Response To Douglas McCarron's Delusional Response To AFL-CIO Resolution 70

 

 

As a rank and file member of the UBC I must ask that the United Brotherhood of Carpenters require Douglas McCarron to undergo psychiatric testing for his obvious delusional state of mental health. If indeed Mr. McCarron believes in the content of this statement it is clear he is delusional and has no concept as to the reality of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters. Of course we cannot rule out that this statement is pure propaganda meant to mislead the general public by publishing lies which in no way reflect the reality of the UBC.  This is hardly comforting because it would only mean that McCarron is a perpetual liar and not mentality ill. Of course many rank and file members may argue otherwise.

   Mr. McCarron's statement was both a complete distortion of the realities of the state of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and an insult to its membership. In wording such as ”commitment to serve their needs”, “Opportunity to provide for their families” and “commitment to the interests of our members” McCarron is a liar and these words are a slap in the face to many UBC members who are suffering under McCarron's repressive regime and self serving rules and policies. McCarron and his cronies only interest is to line their pockets with the funds of hard working rank and file members and the quest for power. McCarron and his cronies, like Regional Director Frank Spencer, conspire to destroy the democratic rights of rank and file members and support Council puppet regimes who have again been indicted for bribery, drugs and fraud such as the NYC District Council and Michigan District Council ESTs. They support the destruction of working Locals by allowing Regional Councils to raid their funds and seize control of all aspects of their existence so that a duly elected Local President can be locked out of his own Union Hall at the whim of some Council dirt bag. Locals that fight to retain their autonomy are crushed as they did with Carpenters Local 229 in Glens Falls NY in 2003. McCarron and his council puppets destroyed the local, ruined its Pension Fund and robbed its Welfare fund. They tossed members into the street to send a message to all those that opposed his council appointed cronies. This is how the UBC and McCarron “serves the needs of its rank and file members” Douglas McCarron is not only a blight on Unionism but an arrogant and deceitful would be dictator who has destroyed the future and prosperity of the rank and file UBC member for the sake of power and money. HIS Power and money for HIS cronies which they bleed from the hard work and sweat of the UBC membership.

 

      Mr. McCarron's assessment as to the market share and ranks of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters is also another of his delusions. His new corporate Unionism policies have decimated the rank and file membership numbers and are responsible for large losses of market share. They throw millions at Organizers who cannot organize a dog and pony show let alone sign contractors or increase membership. In our own upstate NY local we have lost  440 members over a 5 year period. Many have resigned due to their refusal to be fleeced by these Council carpetbaggers and many have been thrown out of the Union for refusing to be oppressed by McCarron's and his Regional Councils dictatorial administration. In their world members have no democratic rights. Local 370 alone has 5 Organizers making between $80,000 to $125,000 plus double pensions who have NOT SIGNED a single contractor in six months and some who have NEVER signed a contractor. The UBC organizing motto is “Organize or Lie”. Much like McCarron's Resolution 70 response their attempts to lure contractors and new members are guided by a policy of lies and false statements as to the reality of UBC membership and what treatment they can expect at the hand of McCarron's hand picked stooges. The drop out rate of new members is astronomical. Once the new rank and file become a victim of the fleecing of their pay checks and experience a Union membership that borderlines on servitude they walk away.

UBC Members have had Pension and Welfare funds seized against their will and lost by incompetent Council Trustees. The Empire Regional Council, who lost millions to Madoff, is penalizing the rank and file fund accounts for THEIR violation of due diligence and fiduciary duty and their sheer ignorance. The FORCED merger of Local funds into Regional funds was not to reduce costs and provide better services for members but to consolidate power. Have a look at the purchase of the First Trade Union Bank and the UBC Market Recovery Program for some insight. The result of these mergers is that Local Welfare, Annuity and Pension funds have been devastated and member’s costs have doubled and tripled. We have full time working Carpenters who cannot get Health benefits for themselves or their families due to the mismanagement and greed of these Regional Councils. While members families suffer with no benefits, carpenters are out of work for months at a time, vacation and annuity payments are illegally withheld, and incompetent officers and trustees lose millions, these clowns continue to reward themselves. They take Ridiculous Salaries like Empire Council EST Patrick Morin who lost millions to Madoff and who is taking home $321,000 a year and $175,000 in his pension each year after his recent $10,000 raise. Local 370 President William Weir announced a 300 hour increase for the rank and file to qualify for health benefits and then took a $20,000 raise for himself. This is a fine example of the greed and corruption that is the reality of the United Brotherhood  of Carpenters.

     What I find most amusing and alarming is that in his arrogance Mr. McCarron sees resolution 70 as no threat to the United Brotherhood of Carpenters. Is he so delusional that he believes that the United Brotherhood membership supports his Regional Council cronies and oppressive corporate Unionism? Does he believe he can stop an exodus of the UBC membership to new chartered AFL-CIO Carpenters organizations? In anticipation of resolution 70 they have started the legal wrangling and begun to impose blatant extortive controls on members access to their Pension, Annuity  and Welfare monies? Perhaps he, like many others, sees the AFL-CIO Resolution 70 as blowing smoke in an attempt to bring the UBC per capita money back into the AFL-CIO fold. Perhaps he sees that the AFL-CIO, just like McCarron and Stern themselves, could not care less about the Union worker and are only after the power and cash. I suggest McCarron look back and understand that the bag of tricks he used in an attempt to raid other trades can be used against him. In his quest to be king of all labor McCarron left the AFL-CIO to avoid bylaw 19 which makes raiding other trades illegal. Since that time McCarron has been trying to steal the work of other trades even going so far as to charter other trade locals. He created  a Tapers local 52 and then attempted to steal the work of the Tapers and Painters International. He planted Local 52 workers with contractors signatory with the Tapers and Painters. These Carpenter/Taper plants were justifiably fired at which time McCarron forced a representation vote. Luckily the NLRB and the workers stuck that move in the McCarron brain pan and he lost out. However he has left behind, exposed for all to utilize, a long trail of dirty deeds that can now be used against the UBC. Perhaps McCarron is counting on wording in Resolution 70 which declares that the newly chartered Locals "will not organize those already affiliated with another Union" to protect himself and the UBC. Again Dougy. Enjoy the delusion. Mr. McCarron mentions the lack of training for Carpenters in the AFL-CIO. One has to wonder how many ex UBC training personnel will be teaching at these newly chartered locals. I am sure any AFL-CIO training facility NOT built in close proximity to Las Vegas Casinos, like the McCarron Vegas training palace is, will not be as effective in the delusional mind of a Doug McCarron but I am sure they will manage to teach.

 I do not advocate separation from the UBC and instead believe the UBC needs to divest itself of the corrupt elements such as the recently indicted. I believe the UBC needs to remove the blight on the UBC that is  Douglas McCarron and restore democratic Unionism by cleaning out and dissolving his Regional Councils. However if McCarron ever has a lucid moment he might want to ask where those 440 Union members that we lost are today? He might want to ask how many more millions he will have to spend on the next series of Locals who “Turn off the Lights” such as the BC Carpenters. The UBC is going down not because of the evil non Union or the disgruntled “Commies and deranged loners as Dougy likes to call them” in the UBC. It is losing members and market share directly due to the policies and rules instituted by  McCarron and his cronies. The UBC is losing members and market share because of recent events like the indictment of McCarron and Spencers hand appointed and protected alleged criminals in NYC. The UBC has no credibility and it has no Democratic Union. That blame rests squarely on the shoulders of Douglas McCarron. If the UBC loses members to an AFL-CIO charter threat that turns out to be real than that blame shall also rest squarely on the shoulders of an obviously delusional Douglas McCarron.

      Douglas McCarron is not content with the destruction of just the Carpenters Union. He is a threat to Organized Union Labor as we know it. As listed previously McCarron desires to be the King of All Union Labor. He and his cronies have embarked on an unprecedented attack on organized labor as a whole. The UBC  attempts to raid the work of our fellow brother and sister Union trades people on a daily basis. Their livelihood and paychecks are under constant attack from the McCarron corporate machine. How hypocritical is this clown when he claims that there is no problem and "all the trades are working together". McCarron's idea of working together is "wall to wall "contracts the UBC is trying to negotiate in which all trades are under the control of the UBC. Other trades have spent millions of their memberships hard earned wages to fight off the UBC attacks on their work. Under McCarron's cut throat unionism his own Carpenters have been reduced, by his command, to piecework and severely reduced wages. His membership languishes on out of work lists for months at a time and the future of the UBC worker is bleak. Is this what Unionism has become? Is this "All trades working together"? McCarron is not only a threat to his own members but a blight on all Union Labor. Let us hope that delusional statements issued by McCarron such as this will make Labor as a whole stand together and stomp out the very real blight that is Douglas McCarron. The UBC corporate Unionism is NOT the future of organized labor but the beginning of the end. I find it hard to believe that the whole of organized labor cannot put an end to some pimp from California. The man who would be King. The AFL-CIO may not be the answer. Resolution 70 may well  be" a solution looking for a problem". But that problem is very real for all Union workers. That problem is Douglas McCarron.