by
Fred Glass
77
7. Building Paradise: The Making of the Los Angeles Working Class
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notes
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The major Los Angeles trade union was the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners Local 56. Its founder, Arthur Vinette, raised by his Canadian father to be a ship’s carpenter, came to Los Angeles via New York and Colorado in the early 1880s. He discovered conditions for carpenters deteriorating in the midst of the building boom. Disregarding his complete lack of previous union experience, Vinette decided the remedy was to organize Local 56. Thanks to the voracious need for skilled carpenters, along with Vinette’s persistence, it soon became the largest union in southern California. At its peak in 1887 nearly a thousand members paid dues to the organization.
The major Los Angeles trade union was the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners Local 56. Its founder, Arthur Vinette, raised by his Canadian father to be a ship’s carpenter, came to Los Angeles via New York and Colorado in the early 1880s. He discovered conditions for carpenters deteriorating in the midst of the building boom. Disregarding his complete lack of previous union experience, Vinette decided the remedy was to organize Local 56. Thanks to the voracious need for skilled carpenters, along with Vinette’s persistence, it soon became the largest union in southern California. At its peak in 1887 nearly a thousand members paid dues to the organization.