Picketing carpenters get a few joiners
A picket line representing the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America has some non-brethren in the mix.
The union is paying people who have no ties to the brotherhood to tote signs and jointly chant about the need for higher wages and benefits, a union representative confirmed. About half of the dozen people marching in front of the Riverside Avenue U.S. Bank Building on Friday morning were hired help making non-union wages.
“They’re probably the highest-paid picketers in the country,” said Eduardo Canales, a representative for the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters. He declined to give their exact pay but said the picketers earn more than $10 an hour.
The pickets have become a regular morning event on the West 400 block of Riverside Avenue, since the Union, which represents about 3,000 workers in the area, started protesting what it calls substandard wages and benefits by Construction Associates of Spokane, Inc.
Canales said the company, which is doing work on the Paulsen, Fernwell and U.S. Bank buildings, pays $8 to $18 an hour with limited benefits and no health care insurance.
Some tenants of buildings on the West 400 block of Riverside Avenue have complained to the police and media that the group is unruly and is harassing customers and employees. Kiemle & Hagood Co., which manages the U.S. Bank property, hired a private security guard to monitor the group
However, the union representative denied that any bad behavior has occurred and said the union takes full responsibility for everyone on the line — including the paid picketers.
“Our conduct here is legal,” Canales said. “There may be allegations, but nobody here has been charged with blocking or harassing anyone because it just doesn’t happen.”
Outside picketers were hired, he explained, because many of the local union members are busy working and can’t spend mornings on the picket line. Regardless, he said, the group plans to stay put.
“We plan on being here until the business community realizes that carpenters deserve a middle class lifestyle like everyone else.”
Jason Wright, a network administrator for Witherspoon Kelley Davenport & Toole PS, a law firm that has offices on the eighth, 10th and 11th floors, said the noise from the mega-phone can be heard inside every office. While he has never been harassed by the group, Wright said he is certainly annoyed.
“The bottom line is I want them to quit or Construction Associates to give into their demands, so we don’t have to listen to it anymore,” Wright said.
“It’s just so loud. You’d think Jimmy Hoffa was out there, for God’s sake.”