Why don't carpenters walk their own pickets?

[Recursion]

I work on K Street.

I mean, not literally on K Street, actually on M Street, but you get the idea. (Before you freak, we lobby for food safety. We're the good guys. Or at least the somewhat less evil guys.) Working here, I'm used to protests. I've been both tear gassed and beaten while simply walking from the Farragut North stop to work during the World Bank protests (I've also been involved in the production of an indie film that passed picket signs with the main character's picture out as if he were a non-fictional dissident being jailed -- that was kind of depressing).

Near me we have three major protests. The biggest, and my favorite, is Occupy K Street, at McPherson Square on 16th & K. I like those guys. I bring them lentils every few days, and I am part of the laundry circle that will do laundry for people who trust someone to take their clothes away and bring them back. The next biggest is Stop the Machine, an anti-war movement (which started long before OWS and is kind of miffed because they thought of this first). I'm under 35 and cannot stand sanctimonious folk music, so I don't fit in there, but I try to go show support when I can.

The last is a long-standing (4+ years at this point) demonstration by the carpenters' local in DC, complaining that nobody in downtown DC pays local wages. In my heart I agree with this, but they bug me. They had the SEIU inflatable rat for a while (I love that rat) but it's still bothering me:
A) They picketed SEIU, for Christ's sake. Something's up if you're picketing SEIU. (From what I heard part of that settlement is how they got the rat.)
B) None of the picketers are actually carpenters; the carpenters are all off working residential jobs in Bloomingdale and Eckington. Now, I know this is a sore point among labor theorists, but surely at least *some* of your picketers should be the actual laborers who are losing out.
C) My brother, an IBEW electrician and without a doubt the most class-conscious person I know, always gets kind of clammy when I mention the carpenters. "There's unions and there's unions", he'll say. I'll say the Teamsters said the same thing about Longshoremen when I was a longshoreman but he just frowns and says "That's politics. There's really unions and unions and this is an example."

Does anybody here know why the Carpenters' local in DC will stage a protest for several years without ever having actual carpenters walk the pickets? OccupyKStreet and Stop the Machine have also both kind of shied away from this after a couple of initial solidarity marches.

[CreekDog]

1. Wow that explains so much

that first part I meant.

[NNN0LHI]

2. You ain't lying

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Earth_First]

4. Swing and a miss.

Check out the documentary Harlan County, USA for some insight on why walking picket lines matters.

[CreekDog]

5. I take issue that you can know whether or not the picketers are carpenters

that said, the Carpenters Union has some history that makes it different than many unions:

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/11/us/bush-finds-a-friend-in-carpenters-union-president.html

Bush Finds a Friend in Carpenters' Union President
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Published: September 11, 2002

In a movement whose anthem is ''Solidarity Forever,'' Douglas J. McCarron, president of the carpenters' union, defiantly marches to a different drummer, so much so that some union leaders worry that he has marched into the enemy's camp.

Not only has Mr. McCarron caused the biggest split in labor in 30 years by pulling the carpenters out of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., but he has emerged as President Bush's best friend in a union movement that often derides Mr. Bush as the worst president for workers in decades.

[Brickbat]

6. Mr. Brickbat is a member of the UBCJA and was an organizer for several years.

What's wrong with picketing SEIU? That sounds like a jurisdictional issue.

Who's doing the picketing, if they aren't carpenters?

The carpenters, as a craft union, have always been more AFL than CIO. Under McCarron and over the past 15 years, with all the consolidation and centralization of control, it's gotten much more reactionary.