A history of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners in Missouri, 1881-1981

The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners in Missouri (UBCJA) created a collective ethic to retain a way of work and life and preserve an ideal of craftsmanship. Trade rules prohibiting craftsmen from doing piecework, subcontracting work, and filling in time cards embodied this ethic, while regulation of overtime work and forms of work-sharing reinforced the collective identity among union members. Carpenters communicated their knowledge and craftsmanship to prospective craftsmen through apprenticeship, which also allowed the UBCJA to control the technological changes upon their craft. As UBCJA members established their claims to the work generated by technological change in the building industry, they taught prospective craftsmen how to use the new materials. As a union, carpenters extended their collective identity to include their families by making the union a way of life and transforming the UBCJA into a subculture to communicate their ideals as a Brotherhood. From the inception of the union in 1881, a conflict emerged among UBCJA members over how best to govern themselves. Two conflicting versions of the union emerged which focused on whether to retain control within local unions or to locate authority in the more central structures of district councils. The transfer of power into the district councils in the early 1950's ultimately led to the development of a more hierarchical union. Since World War II, two challenges for control of the craft have confronted the Brotherhood, one from minorities and women and the other from employers. Both struggles mirrored the social and economic change in America during the late twentieth century. The struggle with minorities and women over access to the craft struck at the heart of how the union regulated who used the tools of the craft and gained the knowledge of craftsmen. The conflict assumed added significance as the federal government changed from a promoter of apprenticeship to a regulator of the process. The struggle with employers focused over trade rules by which craftsmen had traditionally retained control over the craft. Gradually, in response to economic competition from other regions of the country like the sunbelt, the union loosened that control.