United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, Local 210 Records

The Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners was founded on 8 August 1881. Carpenters unions and trade organizations throughout the United States met in Chicago and elected Peter McGuire—a young carpenter who had successfully organized carpenters in the St. Louis area—secretary, and Gabriel Edmondsen of Washington, D.C. president of the newly formed union. Under McGuire's dynamic leadership, the UBCJ was the largest trade union in America by 1890. During the 1890s the Carpenters played a major role in Labor's struggle for an eight-hour workday and were instrumental in the establishment of Labor Day as a national holiday. In 1894, Peter McGuire and the Carpenters joined Samuel Gompers to form the American Federation of Labor.

Local 1713 of South Norfolk was the first to receive a charter in the area by Local 746 of Norfolk in 1891. Other early UBCJ in western Connecticut Local 100J of New Milford (1902), Local 119 of Ridgefield (1906), Local 409 of New Canaan (1910), and Local 1200 of Wilton (1912). The first contract negotiated by Local 713 called for an hourly wage of 22.5 cents and a sixty-hour workweek.

In 1892, sixty-eight carpenters in the Stamford area, dissatisfied with low wages and long work weeks, agreed to form a union. With the assistance of Frank Duffy, president of the New York UBCJ Council, UBCJ Local 210 of Stamford was organized. The charter was granted on 14 October 1897. John T. Flynn was elected financial secretary and served Local 210 in various capacities until his death in 1940. Prior to Local 210's existence, carpenters in the Stamford area worked 10 - 12 hours a day, six days a week at a rate of $1.50 to $2.00 per day. Local 210's first negotiated contract established a nine-hour day at a rate of 30 cents an hour. Local 210 continued to grow steadily through the mid-1920s. In 1924 membership stood at six hundred and eighty carpenters; wages had increased to $1.12 per hour and the workweek was further reduced to 45 hours. That same year, Carpenters Hall was built in Stamford area. It was torn down in 1971.

Local 210's growth was severely curtailed by the economic depression, beginning in 1929. By the mid-1930s membership dropped below fifty and wages fell below a dollar an hour—from pre-Depression high of $1.25. Recovery did not begin until 1941 and the United States' entry into the Second World War. At the fiftieth anniversary of Local 210's founding in 1942, there were 360 members and the wage rate was $1.87 per hour.

During the post-war period, Local 210 membership continued to grow. Unlike many smaller locals, which were unable to compete effectively for large jobs, Local 210 was able to take advantage of urban expansion and negotiate large increases for its members. By the late 1960s total UBCJ membership reached 10,000 members. Economic recession, combined with an expansion of the non-union sector of the construction industry in the early 1920s, cut UBCJ membership in half. Unlike many other locals, however, Local 210 has been able to maintain a steady rate of growth, numbering approximately 3000 dues-paying members in 1986. Contributing to 210's success has been a series of timely mergers with older UBCJ locals. In November 1968, the 72 members of Stamford Local 1700 voted to merge with Local 210. The 99 members of New Canaan Local 409 followed them in 1969. In 1977, 260 members of Norfolk Local 246 voted to merge with Local 210. This placed the towns of Ridgefield, Norfolk, Darien, New Canaan, and Stamford under the jurisdiction of a single local. More recently, as a consequence of the merger with Local 1717 in 1979, Local 210's jurisdiction was expanded to the entire state of Connecticut for shops and mills under industrial charter.