Copyright 1995 McGraw-Hill, Inc.  
Engineering News-RecordSeptember 4, 1995
SECTION: NEWS; Vol. 235, No. 10; Pg. 13

LENGTH: 317 words

HEADLINE: Carpenters get new leader

BODY:
The guard is about to change at the carpenters' union, the largest of the building trades. After seven years as general president, Sigurd Lucassen will step down in mid-November. He will nominate Second General Vice-President Douglas J. McCarron to succeed him when the 500,000-member union meets Sept. 25 to elect new leaders.

Lucassen, 68, announced Aug. 9 he would not seek reelection, says union spokesman Monte Byers. The nomination is expected to allow a smooth transition. Lucassen was reelected in 1991, but had to defeat a challenger.

J. Howard Mock, chairman and CEO of Jaynes Corp., an Albuquerque contractor, likens McCarron, 44, to laborers' union President Arthur Coia, calling them ''a new breed of labor folks.'' Mock, a trustee of the carpenters' health and safety fund, adds, ''Both are very articulate, impressive people.''

As head of the carpenters' Southern California District Council, McCarron was instrumental in aiding the union's cause there, say Byers and Mock. Drywall work had gone open-shop and in 1992 a group of nonunion workers went on strike over wages and working conditions, says Byers. Unions including the carpenters provided resources to the strikers. When the drywallers prevailed, they joined the carpenters and have since gained a large share of work around Los Angeles.

Lucassen will nominate Andris Silins, Boston District Council president, to replace McCarron in the third-ranking post, and Jim Patterson to remain secretary-treasurer.

Byers says Lucassen is retiring ''to spend more time with his family,'' and pass ''the torch of leadership.''

Lucassen initially backed a challenge to building trades President Robert Georgine, who now is expected to be reelected. Byers says that wasn't a factor in Lucassen's decision to step down. The union now supports Georgine's ticket, which includes carpenters' No. 2 man, Paschal McGuinness.  
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