About the MRCC

The Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters and Millwrights represents 14,000 carpenters and millwrights across the state of Michigan. Our member carpenters help build diverse projects, large and small, residential and commercial. Union millwrights work with precision machinery, installing and maintaining everything from conveyor systems to turbines and generators. Our members work closely with contractor partners across the state.

Here is the MRCC advantage:

• Union carpenters and millwrights get extensive training in state-of-the-art methods and equipment during a four-year apprenticeship that produces the best skilled professional worker fully certified by the U.S. Department of Labor.
• The MRCC ‘s top priority is to collectively bargain for good wages for all members, who deserve a fair wage for a hard day’s work.
• MRCC is committed to ensuring its members are working on safe job sites – not working along untrained, unsafe and even undocumented workers.
• Union members have good healthcare coverage and a pension that members can build on as they work.

The MRCC is more than just a union. It’s a brotherhood of skilled tradesmen and women who take real pride in their craft. Carpenters and millwrights are committed to their skilled trade, standing together to keep the union and Michigan’s economy strong.

A history of pride, skill and safety

The Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters and Millwrights arose from one of the world’s first unions, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America.

A delegate from Detroit was in attendance at the UBC’s first meeting at Trades Assembly Hall in Chicago in 1881. Thanks to these early members and their victorious fights, carpenters and millwrights today enjoy:

• An eight-hour workday
• Fair wages and benefits
• The best apprenticeship and training
• Safe work sites because our members get the best safety training around

These efforts now benefit all workers, union and non-union alike.

Today, the MRCC represents more than 14,000 journeypersons and apprentice carpenters and millwrights across Michigan. The MRCC offers ongoing training and administers health care and pension benefits to our members.

Continuing a legacy dating back more than 100 years, the MRCC’s leadership and members are also known throughout Michigan for their community involvement, donating their time, skills and financial support to community and charity organizations. In both our work and in our charitable commitment, carpenters and millwrights continue to play an active role in rebuilding Michigan.

Carpenters

Carpenters measure, saw, level and nail wood and other building materials. They install tile and insulation, acoustical ceilings, cabinets, siding and much more. They work with many tools and materials to build houses, erect skyscrapers, and construct bridges, tunnels and highways. Carpenters make up the largest single group of skilled workers in the country. To be a carpenter is to be a member of one of the oldest and most respected trades.

Millwrights

Millwrights are members of an élite construction industry subspecialty that works primarily in metal and precision machinery. Millwrights install conveyor systems, giant turbines and electrical generators. They install and maintain factory machinery, and perform much of the precision installation and maintenance work in nuclear power stations. As highly skilled construction mechanics, millwrights study and interpret blueprints and perform the drilling, welding, bolting and fabricating necessary to bring the plans to life. Millwrights keep the wheels of industry turning.