MarkDaMan
06-20-2007, 04:17 PM
Drywallers' new contract comes at cost
Construction - The strike ends with lost wages and other unions disgruntled
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
BRENT HUNSBERGER
The Oregonian
Union officials declared victory as the 19-day-old drywallers strike rolled to an end Tuesday night, but other unions continued to harbor bad feelings and one large contractor is seeking more than a half-million dollars in damages.
Members of the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters, which represents 1,300 drywall carpenters in Oregon and southwest Washington, voted 608-47 to accept a new two-year contract, union spokesman Eric Franklin said. About 130 ballots remain to be counted today.
"It's pretty overwhelming," Franklin said of the vote. "It tells me people thought they got a pretty good deal out of this."
The strike was the state's largest since December 2001, when a union representing 1,500 nurses at Oregon Health & Science University walked out for nearly two months, according to the Oregon Employment Department.
An employers group of drywall contractors had offered the union raises of $1.75 an hour, or 4.3 percent, each year. The contract that expired May 31 paid $29.33 an hour in wages, or $40.82 including health and pension benefits.
The tentative deal brokered Saturday with help from a federal mediator gives drywall carpenters a $1.85 raise in year one, a $1.20 increase in June 2008 and an additional $1.20 raise beginning December 2008. The union had been seeking a raise of $2.45 an hour, or six percent, both years.
Despite the fact that they didn't get what they wanted, "I think it's a big win for us," Franklin said. "We faced some pretty strong headwinds."
Not the least of which was opposition from within the labor movement. Nearly two dozen building unions refused to sanction the strike, accusing the carpenters of trying to raid their members and prompting many construction workers to cross picket lines.
"They ruined relationships with a lot of us for a long time," said Steve Zuercher, business representative for the Operative Plasterers' and Cement Masons' Local 82 in Portland. "A lot of us aren't going to soon forget what their leadership tried to do to us. Unfortunately, their members and our members got caught in the middle of it."
Bob Bussel, director of the University of Oregon's Labor Education and Research Center, said it remains to be seen whether lingering ill will among building unions will hurt long-term organizing and bargaining efforts by the labor movement. But he said any significant wage gains won for a significant number of workers are an achievement at a time union membership is declining.
"Going on strike and coming away with something substantive, that hasn't always been the easiest thing for unions to do recently," he said.
Ed Charles, executive director of the drywall contractors association, said his members lost as many as a dozen contracts worth several million dollars to nonunion drywall firms during the course of the strike. "There were some substantial job losses," he said. "The big loser is the carpenters."
Charles estimated it would take several years for union members to recover 13 days of lost wages -- more than $3,000 per member -- through the increases the union got through the strike.
But Hoffman Construction Co. of Oregon plans to work crews double shifts, offer overtime and possibly hire extra workers to make up for delays at several sites regionwide, company spokesman Justin Paterson said Tuesday.
Hoffman also plans to press ahead with a federal lawsuit against the union to recoup economic damages from costly disruptions at multiple construction sites, the company's attorney said.
In a lawsuit filed June 11 in U.S. District Court, Hoffman accused the carpenters union of unlawful secondary boycott, trespass and nuisance at The Nines hotel renovation in the Macy's building in downtown Portland and at condo construction sites on the city's South Waterfront.
Hoffman's complaint alleges at least $100,000 in damages at The Nines and more than $500,000 in damages at three sites along South Waterfront. The company accused picketers of blocking entrances, locking gates and used profanity, verbal threats and racist and sexist comments to intimidate employees of contractors not involved in the dispute.
Brent Hunsberger: 503-221-8359; brenthunsberger@ news.oregonian.com; blog.oregonlive.com/atwork
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/business/1182309933147430.xml&coll=7
Construction - The strike ends with lost wages and other unions disgruntled
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
BRENT HUNSBERGER
The Oregonian
Union officials declared victory as the 19-day-old drywallers strike rolled to an end Tuesday night, but other unions continued to harbor bad feelings and one large contractor is seeking more than a half-million dollars in damages.
Members of the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters, which represents 1,300 drywall carpenters in Oregon and southwest Washington, voted 608-47 to accept a new two-year contract, union spokesman Eric Franklin said. About 130 ballots remain to be counted today.
"It's pretty overwhelming," Franklin said of the vote. "It tells me people thought they got a pretty good deal out of this."
The strike was the state's largest since December 2001, when a union representing 1,500 nurses at Oregon Health & Science University walked out for nearly two months, according to the Oregon Employment Department.
An employers group of drywall contractors had offered the union raises of $1.75 an hour, or 4.3 percent, each year. The contract that expired May 31 paid $29.33 an hour in wages, or $40.82 including health and pension benefits.
The tentative deal brokered Saturday with help from a federal mediator gives drywall carpenters a $1.85 raise in year one, a $1.20 increase in June 2008 and an additional $1.20 raise beginning December 2008. The union had been seeking a raise of $2.45 an hour, or six percent, both years.
Despite the fact that they didn't get what they wanted, "I think it's a big win for us," Franklin said. "We faced some pretty strong headwinds."
Not the least of which was opposition from within the labor movement. Nearly two dozen building unions refused to sanction the strike, accusing the carpenters of trying to raid their members and prompting many construction workers to cross picket lines.
"They ruined relationships with a lot of us for a long time," said Steve Zuercher, business representative for the Operative Plasterers' and Cement Masons' Local 82 in Portland. "A lot of us aren't going to soon forget what their leadership tried to do to us. Unfortunately, their members and our members got caught in the middle of it."
Bob Bussel, director of the University of Oregon's Labor Education and Research Center, said it remains to be seen whether lingering ill will among building unions will hurt long-term organizing and bargaining efforts by the labor movement. But he said any significant wage gains won for a significant number of workers are an achievement at a time union membership is declining.
"Going on strike and coming away with something substantive, that hasn't always been the easiest thing for unions to do recently," he said.
Ed Charles, executive director of the drywall contractors association, said his members lost as many as a dozen contracts worth several million dollars to nonunion drywall firms during the course of the strike. "There were some substantial job losses," he said. "The big loser is the carpenters."
Charles estimated it would take several years for union members to recover 13 days of lost wages -- more than $3,000 per member -- through the increases the union got through the strike.
But Hoffman Construction Co. of Oregon plans to work crews double shifts, offer overtime and possibly hire extra workers to make up for delays at several sites regionwide, company spokesman Justin Paterson said Tuesday.
Hoffman also plans to press ahead with a federal lawsuit against the union to recoup economic damages from costly disruptions at multiple construction sites, the company's attorney said.
In a lawsuit filed June 11 in U.S. District Court, Hoffman accused the carpenters union of unlawful secondary boycott, trespass and nuisance at The Nines hotel renovation in the Macy's building in downtown Portland and at condo construction sites on the city's South Waterfront.
Hoffman's complaint alleges at least $100,000 in damages at The Nines and more than $500,000 in damages at three sites along South Waterfront. The company accused picketers of blocking entrances, locking gates and used profanity, verbal threats and racist and sexist comments to intimidate employees of contractors not involved in the dispute.
Brent Hunsberger: 503-221-8359; brenthunsberger@ news.oregonian.com; blog.oregonlive.com/atwork
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/business/1182309933147430.xml&coll=7
