The members of 308 did not let the optimism of the early 1920's turn into complacency. The carpenters believed that their union had to be prepared to confront employers and politicians in Iowa who might decide to wage anti-union assaults against the working class. So at the start of the decade, confident in the durability of their twenty-year-old union, local 308 extended its organizational reach into the political arena. As it had done during the previous three decades, 308 took the lead in organizing the trades in Cedar Rapids. On March l, 1920, unions representing nine different crafts gathered at a meeting sponsored by local 308 to organize a committee to influence the direction of local politics. After a lengthy discussion, carpenters, bricklayers, millwrights, millworkers, painters, meat cutters, coopers, teamsters, sheetmetal workers, and railway mail service workers decided to endorse Louis Roth for Mayor and Pitcher, Thomas and Zika for commissioners.

Out of this meeting and the work of a committee appointed by 308, a "sifting" committee emerged to coordinate this joint political campaign. The committee assessed the carpenters five cents and each of the forty-two unions in Cedar Rapids had one delegate, except for the carpenters who had three. The unions gave the committee the power to recommend certain candidates for city offices and to advise them "who were and were not friends of organized labor." The "sifting" committee also established 308 as a force in local politics. In response to the activity of the "sifting" committee, local politicians consulted 308 on major decisions that affected the city.

Along with political activity, Local 308 also mobilized its members to take militant action of the job to fight intense employer attacks on union. Beginning in 1920 open shop associations began to form all around the country. In January 1921 a national convention of employers adopted the name "American Plan" for anti-union offensive. For the next decade, businesses, contractors, and industrialists fought to keep unions out of their work places, reduce workers' wages, and increase the pace of production. With contractors committed to the open shop and lower wages, the 1920's would be a decade that tested the organizing strength of local 308.

The strike in 1921 emerged largely in response to the contractors' attempts to cut wages and rollback the power of local 308. But the strike lasted so long because neither the contractors nor the carpenters of Cedar Rapids had resolved the persistent and pressing problem of jurisdiction over new materials.

The union had not prospered during the 1920's, but it had made some important gains in working conditions and took some internal initiatives that helped ensure the strength of the union. The members of 308 thought that the next decade would be a time of growth for the building industry and for their union. On the last day of the 1920's, the business agent reported that things had been busy in his office during the past week and that "things look very good for work this year." -BACK-NEXT-