The optimism of the business agent was short-lived. Soon the entire country (including the carpenters in Cedar Rapids), realized the United States had plunged into one of the worst economic crises in its history, the Great Depression. Between 1929 and 1933, unemployment rose from 3.2% to 24.9% and employed workers faced wage cutbacks and lived with the constant fear of being laid off. Business investment fell 88% between 1931-1933. The gross national product dropped from $103.1 billion to $58 billion in 1932.

The Depression hit the building trades especially hard. Construction fell by 78%, and the average annual earnings of a full-time construction worker in 1933 were less than half of what they were in 1929. The general secretary of the UBCJ reported in January 1932, that over 80% of the Brotherhood members were out of work. The Des Moines local reported the same level of unemployment a year earlier. The number of members in arrears also more than doubled in a period of four years. Between 1928 and 1932 the number of delinquent Brotherhood members increased from 36,384 to 100,013. Local carpenter unions around the country placed stay-away notices in The Carpenter and some members argued that the Brotherhood should limit membership and deny clearance cards.

After thirty years of growth and accomplishment, Cedar Rapids Local 308 faced the most difficult period in its history. Declining membership, high unemployment, and uncooperative contractors threatened to destroy or drastically diminish the power of their union. But the members of 308 did not remain passive in the face of seemingly overwhelming obstacles. Through a combination of determined resistance, expanded political activity, and skillful leadership, the members of 308 kept the union intact. Locals around the country experienced a sharp reduction in members. Much of this decline occurred because new members could not afford to pay dues and potential members could not pay the initiation fee.

Declining wages posed one of the most serious threats to carpenters in Cedar Rapids. In 1932 carpenters' wages fell below their 1920 level after 308 accepted a 17-1/2 cents per hour wage reduction to 87-1/2 cents. Employer organizations at both a national and local level, exerted more power in setting the wage scales and hours than the unions. Union wages in Cedar Rapids drooped to 70 cents per hour, and many carpenters accepted jobs below the 40 cents minimum wage.

Soon after the National Labor Relations Act, Roosevelt believed that the new legislation would be successful in raising wages because it guaranteed workers the right to create strong labor unions. The outlawed many unfair labor practices, and established the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The NLRB supervised representation elections, protected workers from employer coercion, and enforced collective bargaining agreements. Local 308 could now use labor commissioners from the NLRB to pressure Contractors to bargain in good faith. Within two years of the enactment of the Wagner act in 1935, unemployment was still high in Cedar Rapids, but the contractors were less likely to delay negotiations and in 1937 carpenters' wages increased to $1.10 per hour from a low of 70 cents in 1934.

The carpenters union in Cedar Rapids looked very different at die end of the decade of Depression than it did in 1929. Local 308 no longer confined its activity to negotiating and enforcing voluntary wage agreements with contractors. Under the leadership of Walt Shadle, the local survived the Great Depression and adjusted to numerous government agencies created by the New Deal legislation during the 1930's.

In August 1939, 308 held a fortieth anniversary celebration to mark the end of almost a half-century-long struggle to establish their union as a leading member of the labor movement in Iowa. The carpenters' local grew during the early years of trying to establish a new union, lasted through the employer assaults of the 1920's, survived the harsh effects of the Depression in the 1930's.
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