The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America was formed in August of 1881 by carpenters from eleven U.S. cities. For information about its history, go to http://www.carpenters.org/history.

Local 24 covers much of Southeastern Connecticut (from Orange to the Rhode Island line), much of Northeastern Connecticut (from Union and Willington to the Rhode Island line), and much of Central Connecticut.

Local 79, the original New Haven local, merged with Waterbury Local 260 in 1971. Both merged into Local 24 in 1974, as did a number of smaller locals from towns throughout the state. Other locals merged later. There are four charters of the original locals in the office on Main Street in Wallingford, although New Haven’s is not among them. The New London/ Norwich local, Local 30, merged into Local 24 in the early 1980s, and Local 24 has kept the union hall open in New London.

For many years the carpenters’ locals in Connecticut were members of the Connecticut State Council of Carpenters. In the mid-1990s, the Carpenters’ Union adopted a regional structure (locally, the New England Regional Council of Carpenters, based in Boston), with an increased emphasis on organizing. This structure was adopted because contractors also operate on a regional basis.

Some functions continue to be organized at the state level; Local 43 (greater Hartford area) and Local 210 (western Connecticut) participate with Local 24 in the apprentice program and the benefit funds. The organizing department and the contractor relations department also operate statewide.

In the late 1990s, a statewide women’s committee was formed to represent active women members. In addition, there is a newly chartered Retirees’ Local, Local 96, composed of retired members of the three Connecticut locals. Its Treasurer, Frederick J. Schurk, Sr., was a member of the original Local 79 (and, incidentally, also of Local 35 at Yale.) The retirees’ group includes several other members of Local 79. Note that the industrial local at Electric Boat, Local 1302, is not part of these statewide structures but has an important history of its own.

According to Chuck Appleby, President of Local 24, the union’s greatest success has been “organizing and increasing the market share for union carpenters and union companies in Connecticut.” Its greatest challenge is “organizing in today’s environment.” The struggle is to “make the public and the legislature aware of the needs of the labor movement;” and, specifically, to combat corporate America’s attempt to find loopholes in state and federal labor law in order to prevent workers from organizing unions.