Carpenters Union and Kansas City Arrowhead Stadium

A national squabble between the AFL-CIO and the independent-minded Carpenters union reared its head in Kansas City last week at the Arrowhead Stadium renovation project.

A conflict arose when the Carpenters District Council of Kansas City posted a “No Contract” banner at the site, claiming it should be doing the panel support work that was being done by members of Sheet Metal Workers Local 2.

The Carpenters’ banner referred to subcontractor Crown Corr Inc., which had assigned the work to the Sheet Metal Workers union.

The banner on Sept. 30 caused some confusion as other construction union members wondered whether to honor the picket and discontinue working, said Greg Davison, Local 2’s business representative.

However, Local 2 immediately sent a letter to the various crafts belonging to the Greater Kansas City Building & Construction Trades Council, asking them to recognize Local 2’s right to the work.

The local asked that all construction activity on the Arrowhead project continue despite the Carpenters union protest.

“Some of the unions may have stopped work briefly on the first day the banner was up, but all the crafts were fully back on the job the following day (Thursday),” Davison said. “I guess that part of the dispute is effectively over.”

But it’s not entirely over. Crown Corr, a Gary, Ind., metal enclosure contractor, filed an unfair labor practice charge against the Carpenters’ District Council over the matter.

According to the complaint filed last week with the National Labor Relations Board, the Carpenters threatened to shut down or slow the Arrowhead project unless the panel support work was reassigned from the Sheet Metal Workers union.

Terry Davis, executive secretary-treasurer of the Carpenters’ District Council, could not be reached for comment. David Pellar, a Crown Corr vice president, also could not be reached Friday.

However, Crown Corr attached a letter Pellar sent to Davis in its NLRB complaint regarding a Sept. 29 meeting attended by representatives of the subcontractor and the two unions.

The letter said Jim Huffman, Local 2’s business manager, reiterated at the meeting that the Sheet Metal Workers union would not give up the panel support work.

“At that point, Terry Davis … of the Carpenters stood up from the table and stated to me that ‘If that’s it, then I’ll do what I have to do,’ ” Pellar’s letter said. “I asked Mr. Davis to explain what he meant by that statement. He replied, ‘It means I’ll do what I have to do.’ ”

The bad blood between the Carpenters and the other construction unions under the AFL-CIO has existed for some time. In 2001, the national United Brotherhood of Carpenters union left the AFL-CIO, its leadership contending that its dues money was being wasted on the programs of then-AFL-CIO president John Sweeney.

The Carpenters joined Change to Win when it was formed in 2005. The dissident labor federation, which includes the Teamsters and Service Employees International Union, criticized the AFL-CIO for moving too slowly and planned to aggressively organize more U.S. workers.

But it was learned recently that the Carpenters left Change to Win last year as well. Locally, the Carpenters’ District Council of Kansas City has not belonged to the local AFL-CIO building and trades council for years. Construction unions belonging to the AFL-CIO have complained for years that the Carpenters have tried to recruit their members to join the Carpenters union, a practice known as “raiding.”

When Richard Trumka succeeded Sweeney as national AFL-CIO president at the convention in Pittsburgh last month, a resolution was passed that called for a new “Carpenters’ Organizing Committee” to be formed if the United Brotherhood of Carpenters failed to rejoin the AFL-CIO. Essentially, the AFL-CIO would create a new carpenters union to compete with the independent United Brotherhood of Carpenters, which has 500,000 members.

Davison, of Sheet Metal Workers Local 2, said he supported the resolution “100 percent.”

“We’re only as strong as the solidarity we have among all our unions,” he said. “We either want the Carpenters to rejoin us or we’ll move forward without them.”