Talk:Picketing slows work on Bellevue Towers March 26, 2008

From Concretepumping

Characterizing that picket as a "spat between Mom and Dad" badly -- and deliberately -- misses the mark. It's no surprise that a management guy makes such a suggestion.

The pickets are in protest of Brundage-Bone and Ralph's workers being coerced and fired for supporting their union. These concrete pumping companies stand accused of the worst kind of Unfair Labor Practices. They fired and intimidated workers who supported their Operating Engineers union, and then paid their employees to protest outside their own union hall (distributing a flier that said attendance was mandatory).

Ultimately, these contractors succeeded in finding a different union willing to undercut the Operating Engineers' area-standard agreement and sign a cheaper contract, but that's not what the picket is about. The picket is about an employer accused of breaking the law and denying their employees their basic rights and freedoms.

That's not an internal labor spat in which the poor contractors whose jobs are interrupted are innocent victims. That is abhorrent employer behavior that needs to be called out and prosecuted. General contractors and project managers who ignore and dismiss such Unfair Labor Practices by their subcontractors do not deserve any sympathy.

For more information about this dispute, check out www.iuoe302.org