The 350,000-member International Union of Carpenters and Joiners has withdrawn from the AFL-CIO, effective March 29.

The move "had been expected since the union's August convention when delegates gave Carpenters President Douglas J. McCarron the green light to withdraw if he believed it was warranted," reported the Engineering News Record.

McCarron has been critical of the AFL-CIO leadership, particularly with the way union dues have been spent on organizing. The Carpenters reportedly contribute about $3 million a year to the AFL-CIO's $100 million budget.

In a letter to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, McCarron said that the federation "continues to operate under the rules and procedures of an era that passed years ago."

But since 1995, when Sweeney took over the top spot at the AFL-CIO, union membership numbers in the U.S. have been more or less flat - putting a stop to a decades-long slide in the nation's population of union members.

"We are disappointed at the decision of the Carpenters," Sweeney said. "I believe that we have an important and mutually beneficial relationship, and that today's unions need to be unified to provide a strong voice for Carpenters members, other union members and all working families, who face serious and challenging issues. I hope they will reconsider their decision."

The Carpenters did not officially abandon the AFL-CIO's Building and Construction Trades Department. However, Sweeney said according to the federation's constitution, any international union that disaffiliates is not allowed to remain in any subordinate body of the AFL-CIO - which effectively bans them from the building trades.

In May 1996 the Michigan Regional Carpenters Council effectively withdrew from the Greater Detroit and Michigan Building Trades councils.

On an international union level, this was the first union defection from the AFL-CIO since 1968, when the United Auto Workers withdrew over the federation's support of the Vietnam War.

The withdrawal by the carpenters was all the buzz last week at the Building and Construction Trades Department Legislative Conference in Washington D.C. One of the main questions that was asked then, and was unanswered at press time: what will happen to Carpenters working in the field under national project labor agreements like the National Maintenance Agreement?

NMA projects require an all-union labor force, and contract language also requires that all workers be part of a union that's affiliated with the AFL-CIO Building Trades Department. Will the Carpenters' defection from the building trades mean that their rank and file members will lose their jobs on NMA projects and other jobs that operate under national agreements?

NMA projects in particular employ thousands of building trades workers in Michigan, usually on heavy industry jobs sponsored by the automakers, utilities and steel manufacturers.

Stay tuned. Any binding decisions and directives will be coming from the international union level.

"The Governing Board will be holding an intensive work session in the near future to explore and address the many issues raised by the Carpenters decision to leave the AFL-CIO and the Building and Construction Trades Department, in a manner that respects the sensitive nature of our industry and the relationships within it," said Building Trades Department President Edward C. Sullivan in a letter to affiliates.