The Carpenters Union was founded in 1881 by a convention of carpenters' unions led by Peter J. McGuire, who served as the General Secretary of the new union for its first 20 years.  The organization had a number of goals: to improve carpenters' wages and working conditions, and to prevent the debasing of their craft by subcontracting, piece rates and other practices that divided the carpenter's work into smaller, less skilled functions.  The Carpenters Union proposed to do this by controlling the supply of labor, organizing the entire industry and excluding non-union contractors from the market.

In order to do that the union first had to either absorb or eliminate rival unions in the industry.  The Brotherhood was only one of several carpenters' unions at the time.  The Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners, a British union, not only had a number of locals in the United States but also had formally affiliated with the American Federation of Labor (AFL).  The United Order of American Carpenters, the Knights of Labor and local organizations of German and Irish carpenters defended their own claims to represent the carpenters in their areas.  The Brotherhood slowly absorbed and eliminated these rivals, adding the word "United" to its name as a condition to its merger with the United Order.

HISTORY BEHIND THE BROTHERHOOD