The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America is one of the largest building trades union in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. One of the unions that formed the American Federation of Labor

American Federation of Labor

The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...

 in 1886, it left the AFL-CIO

AFL-CIO

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL–CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 11 million workers...

 in 2001.
The union was created in 1881 by a convention of carpenters' unions led by Peter J. McGuire

Peter J. McGuire

Peter J. McGuire was an American labor leader of the nineteenth century, the founder of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America and one of the leading figures in the first three decades of the American Federation of Labor...

, who served as the General Secretary of the new union for its first twenty years and its only paid officer for much of its first decade.