Carpenters Union Builds Careers, Communities, and a Stronger Workforce

The work of a union carpenter can be found almost everywhere.

It is in the foundation beneath a family home, the framing inside its walls, and the roof that protects it. It is also found in restaurants, shopping centers, hospitals, data centers, industrial facilities, solar fields, and some of the nation’s largest infrastructure projects.

For Mark Dalton, Missouri Political Director for the Mid America Carpenters Regional Council, that work represents more than construction. It represents an opportunity for working people to build secure careers, support their families, and strengthen the communities where they live.

“Workers deserve good paying jobs with benefits that allow them to support their family, not only financially, but also provide good health care and benefits,” Dalton said. “The workers are owed that for putting in the hard work.”

Dalton has been a carpenter for 29 years. He spent 16 years working in the field before becoming political director in 2014. His experience has given him a firsthand view of both the skills required on a jobsite and the policies that affect workers, contractors, and communities.

More Than a Hammer and Nail

When many people hear the word carpenter, they may picture someone framing a house or building wooden furniture. Dalton said the modern carpenter trade extends far beyond that traditional image.

On residential projects, union carpenters may work on foundations, concrete slabs, framing, drywall, insulation, siding, and roofing. Together, those responsibilities cover many of the major components involved in building a home.

Commercial and industrial carpenters work on projects ranging from restaurants and shopping centers to high rise buildings and large industrial facilities.

The union also represents specialized craftspeople, including floor layers who install carpet, hardwood, and other flooring materials. Millwrights assemble and maintain conveyor systems and work on wind turbines. Other members perform pile driving, solar field construction, and other specialized work.

“There is a wide array of crafts that are not thought of as your traditional, just hammer and nail,” Dalton said.

According to Dalton, approximately 40 percent of the union’s work hours come from residential construction, while about 60 percent come from commercial and industrial projects.

That means the work of union carpenters is often hidden inside the homes, businesses, public buildings, and infrastructure Jefferson County residents use every day.

One visible example is the Jefferson County Health Department campus renovation in Hillsboro. Union carpenters working for Brockmiller Construction and TJ Wies were publicly credited with helping lead the $9.7 million project.

A Career Without College Debt

Dalton said one of the greatest challenges facing the skilled trades has been the long held belief that a traditional college education is the only route to a successful career.

“I think we have had a generation of younger people that have been told they have to go to college to be successful,” Dalton said. “A career in the skilled trades offers a great opportunity at a good career with good benefits to raise and grow a family on.”

The carpenters’ apprenticeship offers a different path.

The four year program combines classroom education with paid, on the job training. Apprentices move through eight terms, generally advancing about every six months. Each advancement comes with an increase in pay as the apprentice develops the skills needed to become a journeyman.

Unlike many traditional college programs, apprentices do not pay tuition for their training. They earn a wage while learning and complete the program without taking on student loan debt.

“You are able to earn a wage while you’re going through the apprenticeship program,” Dalton said. “There is no cost and no debt to that.”

Dalton said the average age of the union’s apprentices is approximately 28, which suggests many people do not discover the opportunity until years after leaving high school.

The union is working to change that through Career Connections, a program that introduces high school juniors and seniors to carpentry. Students can explore the trade before committing to it and may qualify to enter the apprenticeship beyond the first term after graduation.

The early experience also allows students to decide whether carpentry is the right career for them before entering the workforce full time.

Union members who complete the apprenticeship may also use portions of their training toward college credit through articulation agreements with participating colleges. That creates an additional pathway for journeymen who later want to earn an associate degree or continue their education.

Protecting Workers and Responsible Contractors

Dalton said unions are often remembered for picket lines and major labor disputes. Much of their current work, however, happens quietly through partnerships with communities, responsible contractors, and individual workers.

A major focus is addressing contractors and subcontractors that pay workers off the books, fail to provide workers’ compensation coverage, misclassify employees, or withhold wages and benefits.

Those practices can leave workers with little protection if they are injured or denied the pay they earned. Individual workers may also feel powerless when challenging a large contractor or corporation.

“When you are one individual who is being exploited or cheated out of wages or benefits, it is often an uphill battle, or can seem almost impossible, to get what is rightfully yours,” Dalton said. “We’re here to help each one of those individuals.”

Dalton said the union sometimes assists workers who are not union members because confronting exploitation is the right thing to do.

The consequences extend beyond an individual jobsite. Contractors that pay cash off the books or avoid their legal responsibilities can submit lower bids and undercut responsible local companies. Often pushing those companies out of the market.

“Some of these unscrupulous contractors that come in and cheat the system undermine local contractors, local workers, local government, and the tax base,” Dalton said.

Dalton pointed to legislation approved by the Missouri General Assembly earlier this year as an important step toward holding contractors and subcontractors accountable for unlawful employment and payroll practices. The measure was intended to give the state additional tools to investigate worksites and address worker exploitation.

For Dalton, protecting workers also protects the infrastructure, contractors, taxpayers, and families that depend on a stable construction industry.

Training, Standards, and Accountability

Union contractors agree to follow established wage, benefit, training, and workplace standards. Dalton said signatory contractors are licensed, insured, and bonded, while their workers receive extensive education in their crafts.

Those standards provide protections for workers, but they can also provide confidence to homeowners, businesses, and local governments hiring contractors for important projects.

“When you hire a union contractor, you know you’re getting a quality, educated worker who is going to be doing a good job,” Dalton said.

That accountability becomes especially important after disasters, when families may be vulnerable to contractors who collect deposits, perform poor quality work, or disappear before completing a project.

Dalton said established union contractors are part of the communities where they work and will remain available after the project is finished.

Labor Day and the Work Ahead

For Dalton, Labor Day is not simply the unofficial end of summer or an extra day away from work. It is a time to remember the people whose sacrifices helped establish better wages, safer jobsites, benefits, and greater dignity for working people.

“Labor Day is a day that I think a lot of people just take for granted as a day off of work,” Dalton said. “For us, it’s about a much larger movement, celebrating those before us who sacrificed to help get us to where we’re at in the labor movement, and a time to reflect on what more we can do to get some more gains in the future.”

That work includes encouraging union members to become involved in their own communities.

Dalton pointed to Pevely Mayor Steve Markus, a retired union carpenter and former business representative, as an example of a tradesman carrying the values of organized labor into public service.

Whether members are serving in local government, training the next generation, standing up for an exploited worker, or building the places where Jefferson County residents live and work, Dalton said the goal remains the same.

It is about making communities better places to live, raise a family, receive a good education, and build a prosperous future.

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