National Union Takes Control of Carpenter Locals : Labor: Officials swoop down and change locks in preparation for consolidation that removes Orange County District Council from power. The offices will be managed from Los Angeles.

ORANGE —  Officials of the carpenters union headquarters in Washington took over several locals in Orange and Riverside counties Wednesday, surprising local union leaders.

As the national union changed locks on doors and took control of records at the locals, union officials in this area were told that some locals will be merged and that all seven locals will be managed from Los Angeles.

The moves had been expected since the United Brotherhood of Carpenters began consolidating locals throughout Southern California in 1988. But it had not been known when it would happen in Orange County.

Surprise was necessary so local union leaders--some of whom will lose their jobs in the consolidation--could not ask the courts for a restraining order to retain control of their locals, a top union official said.

The national union said in a press release that the move will produce savings by eliminating “duplicative administrative structures.”

The seven locals, which represent about 7,000 members, were torn by a bitter struggle for control that ended in a June election, when Bill Perry held on by just six votes to the top job at the Orange County District Council in Orange, which until Wednesday oversaw the seven locals.

His opponent, Steve Cobb, the former head of Santa Ana’s Local 1815, complained to both the federal Department of Labor and the union’s national headquarters that the election had been stolen. Perry in turn accused Cobb of cheating in the election.

After an investigation, the Labor Department indicated that it would file suit to force a new election. But that is now moot, with the county district council dissolved.

The national union said the consolidation is not connected with the election dispute.

Perry will lose his job at the now-defunct county district council but said he is confident that he will get a chance to gain a seat on the carpenters’ Los Angeles District Council, which now oversees all union activity in Southern California.

Perry said that he was told last week when the consolidation would occur but that it had been widely known for months that it was coming.

The union previously consolidated some locals in Los Angeles in 1988 and abolished the district council in San Diego last year.

A federal appeals court recently upheld union General President Sigurd Lucassen’s right to order the consolidations when they are in the interest of union members.

It is unclear what will happen to union officials from the county district council and the former locals, said Dick Basile--who, as financial secretary, is the top official at the 2,300-member Local 1815 in Santa Ana. That local will be merged with Local 2203 in Anaheim to form a new local.

Basile said he does not know how local union members will react to the mergers. “I just hope this doesn’t cause too much dissension, and we can get on with the business of getting people good jobs in these hard times,” he said.

He was not told about the merger of his local until national union officials showed up at his office about midafternoon Wednesday, Basile said.

Perry said: “These days we’ve got people working all over Southern California, and it doesn’t make sense to keep locals open that are only a few miles apart. Like everybody else, we’ve got to get leaner and meaner.”