Douglas J. McCarron (born 1950) is an American labor union activist, who has served as the president of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America since 1995.
He was named to the negotiating team of the Southern California Council of Carpenters, a regional body covering contractors and other employers in 11 counties.
In late 1985 and early 1986, McCarron discovered that $130 million in loans to construction companies were delinquent but no action had been taken by the other trustees.
Using the union's trusteeship powers, he appointed new leaders to the newly merged locals and transferred most of their assets to the district council.
In 1992, carpenters' international union president Sigurd Lucassen and McCarron ordered a snap one-day election to select new Local 803 leaders.
In 1989, Lucassen told union members that Campbell had approved $95 million in loans to various builders, only to have nearly all the construction projects lose money or declare bankruptcy.
But several elected union leaders accused Lucassen in federal court of colluding with Campbell to approve the loans.
[9][10] When Lucassen ran for election outright in 1991, he was challenged by the union's national secretary, John S. "Whitey" Rogers.
In a hotly contested election rife with allegations of fraud, Lucassen and his running mates Dean Sooter, first vice president; Paschal McGuinness, second vice president; Jim Patterson, general secretary; and Jim Bledsoe, general treasurer, won.
A large number of Southern California non-union drywall workers had struck for higher wages and better working conditions in 1992.
Realizing he could not win after having essentially admitted he had committed fraud in the 1991 election, Lucassen decided not to run.
McGuinness, meanwhile, had been accused of, and subsequently settled, racketeering charges[1] and quit the union to run for secretary-treasurer of the Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD) of the AFL-CIO.
[1][12] McCarron quickly implemented organizational reforms on a national level similar to those he had instituted in Southern California.
McCarron also stripped authority over organizing, political action and union assets from locals, placing it with district or regional councils instead.
[1][14] McCarron demolished the union's four-story headquarters across the street from the United States Congress in Washington, D.C., and built a 10-story office building in its place.
Dissident locals, including large ones in Atlanta, Georgia, and San Francisco, California, were trusteed on (allegedly) thin evidence.
Nevertheless, McCarron told his district and regional councils to continue to work closely with BCTD unions.
[19][20] For several years, McCarron served on the board of directors of the Union Labor Life Insurance Company (ULLICO).
In 2002, federal prosecutors and DOL investigated the company for allegedly obtaining the contract through McCarron's influence.
DOL sued ULLICO and Zenith Administrators for mismanaging the union's funds, although McCarron himself was not accused of any crimes.
The stock repurchase scheme was uncovered, and McCarron and the other directors accused of breaching their fiduciary duty and breaking federal and state securities laws.