Carpenters Union Opens NWA Office

AFSCME Local 965 welcomes the Arkansas Regional Council of Carpenters, which once again has a home in Northwest Arkansas. The union has opened a 1,500-square-foot office and 3,500-square-foot training center at 5375 Hailey Avenue in Springdale, to better serve the area, where it anticipates more jobs to fill.

“The only challenge we have is finding enough people to man the jobs that we have,” said Dennis Donahou, executive secretery-treasurer. He said that the office will help serve the 100 or so members in the area and will offer a place to train people interested in joining the union. Union members in the area are working primarily on commercial projects, such as the baseball stadium in Springdale and the new hospital in Rogers. He said that he anticipates the need for well-trained carpenters will continue to increase in the area, and the union will provide a means of developing them.

People interested in joining the union can stop by the office and talk to a business representative and file an application. “We’ll put you out to work as quick as we can,” Donahou said. People with experience will be sent out to jobs at the level they’re capable of, while people with no experience will be able to enter an apprenticeship program. He said that the goal is to bring apprentices and unskilled laborers up to speed as journeyman carpenters as quickly as possible, because there is a market for the type of skilled craftsman that can be found in the union ranks. “We bring a well-trained and better-paid work force,” he said.

The Regional Council represents more than 2, 000 professional carpenters and millwrights in the two states, and is backed by a $ 100 million annual training budget of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, which helps facilitate training centers throughout the coverage area of Local 71.

For more information about the council, go to http://www.procarpenters.org/, or contact the local office at 717-2437.

Thanks to the Northwest Arkansas Times for covering an important story about the opening of a union office and providing information about job opportunities for skilled union labor in Northwest Arkansas. It is a welcome development.