Jim Lewis describes the barracks-style lodging set up outside the Local 1846 hall.

When leaders of Carpenters and Pile Drivers Local 1846 say they’re moving on after Katrina and Rita, they mean it literally and figuratively.

The local, like many unions in New Orleans, has fought to rebuild a membership that was gutted when residents fled the city and never returned.

Local 1846 had 1,300 active members before the storm. That dropped to 850 afterward. Just about every member in St. Bernard and Plaquemines Parishes, and about half the members in Orleans and Jefferson Parishes, were displaced or had their homes destroyed, said Jim Lewis, a council representative from the Louisiana Carpenters Regional Council, based in Baton Rouge.

Thanks in part to the steady work available in rebuilding the city’s infrastructure, Local 1846’s membership is up about 10 percent and growing little by little, said Jose Maldonado, another council representative.

Providing what’s needed

Helping the local survive was a priority for the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, Lewis said. Carpenters from other parts of the country came to New Orleans to provide the manpower the local needed to complete ongoing construction projects in the region.  That helped Local 1846 maintain its market share and credibility, Lewis said.

Other regional councils, including Kansas City and Minnesota’s Lakes and Plains, sent truckloads of supplies, gift cards and other necessities that individual members needed to keep going.

“Without all our brothers and sisters in the UBC, I’m telling you, I wouldn’t be standing here talking to you,” Lewis said. “We owe everybody in the UBC a deep debt of gratitude. They gave us the things we needed to survive, they gave us the things we needed to keep our local alive. Without that, it would just be a total loss for us down here.”

“Camp 1846”

The local, meanwhile, set up three military-style barracks trailers in the parking lot of its hall in the Mid-City neighborhood of New Orleans. As many as 85 displaced members of 1846 and union carpenters from other parts of the country bunked for as long as 6 months in the trailers. It was just enough for them to sleep and store their gear so they could keep working, Lewis said.

The union hall itself had been under 4 feet of water and was unusable. The local salvaged what it could but, for the most part, old traditions and treasures will have to “live in our hearts,” Lewis said.  The local doesn’t intend to return – partly in response to the damage, partly in response to a neighborhood that had been deteriorating anyway.

The local now has temporary offices in Metairie.

One silver lining from the storms is that members who went to work elsewhere have, in many cases, been able to earn higher wages than they could in New Orleans. Those who have returned, Lewis said, now have a taste of the pay and benefits possible from building a stronger union.

Lewis said he has no idea how many members ultimately will return. Simply keeping in touch has been a challenge. (See video)

“A lot of them are going to stay gone,” he said. He understands that reluctance to return.

“I’ve got members who still have nightmares about this,” Lewis said. “One of the toughest things you’ll ever go through is watching one of your brother members, one of your friends, somebody you grew up with, lose everything they’ve worked for.”

Photos by Bob Przybylinski, IBEW Local 21, and Frank Larkin, International Association of Machinists

Video by Bob Przybylinski, IBEW Local 21