Since 1896, we have fought to protect the workers who build San Francisco.
Early Days (1896)
A new era dawned when the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council was formed in 1896. Painter Robert McIvor was the Council’s leader for its first two years, but his successor, P.H. McCarthy, is a key reason San Francisco came to be known as a union-bossed town. Under his strong leadership — some called him iron-fisted — McCarthy brought together the often quarrelsome and competitive building trades unions into a highly effective bargaining instrument.
A Young Council with Vision
The Council brought order by prohibiting strikes that affected more than one craft without the Council’s consent and by outlawing jurisdictional strikes, and McCarthy skillfully navigated politics not only within the labor movement but also in the halls of government. He aligned the Council with powerful politicians and won a seat at the table for labor in key undertakings such as the new city charter, which included the provision for an eight-hour day and good wages for city workers and those working under city contracts, as well as the establishment of a civil-service form of employment to end a corrupt patronage system that controlled government jobs.
Working Card Established
The key component to the Council’s success was building membership and solidarity across the trades. The carpenters led the way by issuing its members working cards required to secure a job, enabling them to establish a closed shop and eight-hour day. The painters sought a similar closed shop but took it a step further by working with the Council to establish a single working card for all of the trades on a jobsite, thereby greatly expanding the power of the Council and its member unions.
By 1900, the Council had secured a closed shop on all major building sites in San Francisco.
1906
The Building Trades Council’s next great challenge came with the 1906 earthquake — the unexpected calamity devasted the city and threatened to destroy its unions, as the 1871 fire did in Chicago. Nearly three-quarters of the Council’s members lost their homes and work tools to the quake, and rents skyrocketed by 350%.
In order to help the city rebuild quickly, the Council immediately imposed a wage freeze and suspended trade rules for relief work. As workers streamed into the city to participate in reconstruction, they were brought into the union fold. Membership in the building trades unions increased 45% from pre-quake numbers. Within a year, $60 million in new construction was underway, and $75 million in aid was provided to feed and house the homeless. San Francisco building workers’ wages also ranked highest in the country.
General Strike of San Francisco
A strike by the longshoremen in 1934 was pivotal in reigniting the battle for higher wages and working conditions. After two strikers were killed on Market Street, the stage was set for a general strike by all San Francisco unions, effectively shutting the city down for three days, according to historian David Selvin.
Historian Richard Walker called the 1930s a decisive decade for American union power that began with the San Francisco general strike, led by Sam Darcy. Harry Bridges, head of the International Longshoreman and Warehouseman’s Union, was also a key figure. The decade also marked the revival of San Francisco’s closed shop status, which continued, fueled by prosperity and solidarity.
The 21st Century
Although a conservative shift in national politics in the 1920s subsequently curbed its influence, the Building Trades continued to ride the changing times into the early 2000s when the initial foundation for a Citywide Project Labor Agreement — to be achieved many years later — was set.
More recently, the post-Great Recession economic boom of the 2010s boded well for union tradespeople in a city that experienced unprecedented growth. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing economic downturn is perhaps an even more illuminating backdrop to the SFBCTC’s dogged success in the face of adversity. When the crisis hit in early 2020, the council and union affiliates’ leadership sprung into action to maintain workers’ safety and joined private sector partners in lobbying government officials to ensure that construction remained “essential” and jobsites stayed open.