Organized labor expanded rapidly during the 1950's. Four-million new workers joined unions during the fifties, and 25.2% of the labor force belonged to unions in 1956. The 1950's were also prosperous years for the UBCJ. Membership rose by 20%, the real hourly wage rates of union carpenters went up by 30%, and the number of apprentices increased. The Cedar Rapids' local prospered as well!

While the 1950's were relatively stable and prosperous for local 308, its members realized they could not to become complacent. Right-to-work laws and subcontracting threatened to favor non-union contractors. The members of 308, however, flexed their union muscle to fight anti-union politicians and employers. During the 1952 elections for example, carpenters canvassed door to door and drove people to the polls in "get out the vote campaigns." They also regularly used pickets to win good contracts, enforce trade rules, and protest non-union labor.

Despite the militancy of carpenters in Cedar Rapids, changing labor law made it more difficulty for 308 to use pickets in labor struggles. Taft-Hartley had banned unrestricted picketing in 1947 and in mid-1950's the Supreme Court banned site picketing, which prevented unions from shutting down an entire building site to prevent subcontracting. The union's new business agent, William Schaell, and the business agent for the Cedar Rapids Building Trades Council, however, continued to support workers' refusal to cross picket lines. In December a representative from the labor relations board came to Cedar Rapids to investigate trade unions whose members refused to cross an "illegal" picket. The representative accused Schnell and Evans of telling the trades not to cross. Schaell denied telling workers not to cross the line but added "any union man knows what to do without told."

Local 308's approach to resolving jurisdictional disputes, however, had to change during the 1950's. Before the 1930's the carpenters of Local 308 were not legally bound to settle conflicts over jurisdiction. Often Local 308 along with the general office withdrew from jurisdictional boards and claimed new work aggressively through work stoppages. The NLRB and Taft-Hartley, however, required unions and contractors to resolve jurisdictional issues and made work stoppages over jurisdiction illegal. So in 1948 the AF. of L. Building Trades Department and contractor associations created the National Joint Board for the Settlement of Jurisdictional Disputes.

Nineteen unions and a number of contractor groups joined the Board to resolve the jurisdictional disputes that continued to disrupt the construction industry.

Most of the time 308 avoided the Joint Board and settled the disputes locally through negotiation. Sometimes, however the local had to appeal to the Joint Board, often with little success. The leaders of the Carpenters union, encouraged members of 308 to "claim the work first and argue later." The rank and file agreed and forced lathers off a job putting up a ceiling at an Eagle Market and took welding classes so they could claim jobs done be the iron workers. -BACK-NEXT-