Sigurd Lucassen

It was the first contested election for presidency of the carpenters' union since 1915.

The election split the union's 15-member general executive board, with half the members supporting Lucassen's slate and half supporting Rogers' slate.

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.

Sigurd Lucassen (July 11, 1927 – March 23, 2001) was a carpenter and an American labor leader.

Lucassen was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Erling and Clara Lucassen in 1927.

His parents were both Norwegian immigrants.

His father was a unionized carpenter, and his mother a unionized garment worker.

Lucassen was rarely called by his full first name, and most people referred to him as "Sig" or "Siggy."

When the Great Depression began in 1929, the Lucassens moved about 40 mi south to Long Branch, New Jersey, a small beach town on the Jersey Shore.

Although his father often was out of work, his mother (a member of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union) continued to hold a full-time job and support Sigurd, his father and his brothers.

Lucassen went to work stacking fish in an ice house when he was nine years old.

Despite having to work, he continued to attend school.

He played football at Long Branch High School, where he received good grades and graduated in 1946.

Lucassen went to work as a nonunion carpenter after high school in order to gain skill as a carpenter.

A year later, in 1947, he married Audrey West—a girl he had known since elementary school.

The couple had two children (a son and a daughter).

In 1952, Lucassen joined Local 2250 of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters.

He became a committed unionist, and was elected business representative of his local in 1960.

He became known as a skilled negotiator.

Lucassen was eventually elected president of his local, and was elected to several positions in the Carpenters' state organization.

Convinced that apprenticeship and training programs were important to growing the union as well as providing skilled labor for economic growth and development, Lucassen co-founded and helped raise funds for the New Jersey Alliance for Action, a labor-management development coalition which sponsored apprentice and journeyman programs.

Lucassen was appointed a vice president of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters in the 1970s.

He moved to northern Virginia and worked out of the union's headquarters in Washington, D.C.

In October 1982, Carpenters president William Konyha unexpectedly retired and first vice president Patrick J. Campbell assumed the presidency.

Campbell won election outright in 1985.

He was president of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America from February 1988 to 1995.

But Campbell, too, resigned from office early, stepping down for health reasons in February 1988.

First vice president Sigurd Lucassen was appointed president to succeed him.

He consolidated locals in Los Angeles in 1988, in San Diego in 1990 and Orange and Riverside counties in California in 1991.

Although members challenged the consolidations, a federal appeals court upheld union Lucassen's right to force consolidations if they are in the interest of union members.

Lucassen was an active participant in the controversy over the spotted owl and the harvesting of timber in old growth forests.

In September 1989, Lucassen revealed that Campbell had approved $95 million in loans to various builders, only to have nearly all the construction projects lose money or declare bankruptcy.

Half the union's annual budget of $200 million might be needed to write off the loans.

Lucassen blamed Campbell and bad advice from investment advisors, and initiated several lawsuits against them.

But several elected union leaders and union members accused Lucassen in federal court of colluding with Campbell to approve the loans.

When Lucassen ran for election outright in 1991, he was challenged by the union's national secretary, John S. "Whitey" Rogers.

Sooter stepped down in 1993, and McGuinness became first vice president.

Lucassen appointed Douglas J. McCarron, secretary-treasurer of the Southern California Council of Carpenters, second vice president.

Lucassen instituted a general policy of consolidating locals throughout the country.

He began the process as soon as he took office.