2020 Convention Highlights

We Build Strong – UBC Drives Forward With Successful Convention

In the five years since our last convention, members of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America (UBC) have continued to build strong and reach new milestones. In 2020 we have been challenged by the coronavirus pandemic, but that did not stop us from gathering for our convention to mark the union’s progress and set the agenda for the next five years.

On August 22, 2020, the UBC held its 42nd General Convention from a virtual platform, broadcast to more than 1,350 delegates who were participating at 24 locations across the U.S. and Canada. Our convention delegates deserve our thanks for stepping up to participate in this year’s unusual but very productive convention.

As we continue to face some of the steepest challenges in decades, delegates renewed the UBC’s commitment to fighting for area standard wages and benefits, engaging in political action at all levels for Carpenter issues, and providing the education and training programs that make the UBC the undisputed industry leader.

Led by UBC General President Douglas J. McCarron, the delegates elected officers to the union’s General Executive Board for a five-year term.

“Over these past five years, we’ve gone from strong to stronger,” General President McCarron said in his keynote address to the convention delegates. “Our members have placed their trust in us. And over the next five years—in spite of every challenge our industry is confronting right now—we will continue to honor that trust. We built a strong foundation. We built a strong union on top of it. And together, in the years to come, we’re going to build even stronger.”

The UBC General Executive Board Elected at the Convention

  • Douglas J. McCarron, General President
  • Frank Spencer, General Vice President
  • David Tharp, Second General Vice President
  • Thomas Flynn, General Secretary-Treasurer
  • Dennis Donahou, Southern District Vice President
  • Randy Thornhill, Western District Vice President
  • Bill Waterkotte, Eastern District Vice President
  • Jason Rowe, Canadian District Vice President
  • Mark McGriff, Midwestern District Vice President

The men and women of the UBC have always been the first to step up in a crisis and the last to put down their tools. As we continue to face the unexpected, our determined members show us every day that:

To review the 42nd General Convention officer election official master tally, please CLICK HERE.

Together, we are the UBC and We Build Strong.

Convention Photo Gallery

Newly elected officers after being sworn in, left to right, Eastern District Vice-President William Waterkotte; Western District Vice President Randy Thornhill; General Vice President Frank Spencer; General President Doug McCarron; Second General Vice President David Tharp; General Secretary-Treasurer Thomas Flynn; Southern District Vice President Dennis Donahou; and Midwestern District Vice President Mark McGriff
Preparations under way in St. Paul, Minn.
British Columbia delegates in Burnaby, BC
COVID-conscious check-in, Sacramento
Validating credentials for a North Central States delegate
Checking in, Rosie-the-Riveter style, in Greenwood, Ind.
Chicago warden welcomes delegates to Elk Grove, Ill.
New York City delegates meet and greet
St. Louis conversation before the proceedings
Indiana-Kentucky-Ohio delegates observe a moment of silence for those who passed.
Michigan delegates in Wayland
Showing Southwest Council pride
Considering a motion, St. Louis
Southern States Millwrights delegate at the mic
Delegates entered PIN codes to vote on floor measures.
A St. Louis delegate speaks on a motion.
Delegate lining up to vote on UBC officers in Albany, N.Y.
Northern California delegates prepare for the UBC Pin Jacket drawing.
The tradition of convention pins continued even in such unusual times, as the ones on this delegate from the Indiana-Kentucky-Ohio Regional Council show.

Opening Convention

General President McCarron Opening

General Vice President Spencer

Second General Vice President Tharp

General Secretary-Treasurer Flynn

General President McCarron Training