Story Photos
 Photo by Greg Ebersole Drywall carpenter Brandon Neville of Kelso sings union songs and shouts for support at the Lower Columbia College theater construction site on 15th Avenue Tuesday morning. |
Drywallers picket theater site
Wednesday, June 6, 2007 6:36 AM PDT
By Evan Caldwell
Printable version
E-mail this articlePassing motorists honked and hooted along 15th Avenue in support of about 25 local union drywall workers who continued to strike Tuesday for better pay from contractors.
The local group, part of the 1,300-member union in Oregon and Southwest Washington, walked off the construction job of Lower Columbia College's new theater on Friday. Locally, drywall work also has been idled at St. John Medical Center's remodeling job on its sixth floor.
The last contract offer from the Associated Wall & Ceiling Contractors of Oregon and Southwest Washington Inc., which represents 11 contractors in negotiations, was about 4.3 percent for each of the next two years, according to the carpenters' union. That is about 70 percent of the increase that the association agreed to in Seattle, the union said.
A union Web site said five contractors have agreed on interim contracts and talks are progressing with four others. In addition, about 400 union workers rallied in Portland's Gabriel Park Tuesday afternoon.
The drywallers want a 6 percent wage increase each of the next two years, Krieg said. "This is about fair pay," he said.
The contractors association did not return calls seeking comment Tuesday.
At the corner of 15th Avenue and Washington Way in Longview, picketers lobbied for honks of support from passersby Tuesday morning. The drywallers plan to be there again this morning.
"Any public support to rally the troops is great," Jason Krieg, a striking union drywall worker, said Tuesday morning. "We don't want to be out here, we'd rather be working. But we're trying to get the same (wage increase) everyone else got."
On Monday, union mason and iron workers joined in leaving the job site. But on Tuesday, some mason and iron workers crossed the picket lines to go back to work.
"We were surprised to see guys cross. For them to stab us in the back is pretty hurtful," Krieg said. "We're pretty ticked off."
Workers from JH Kelly and Fusion Electric walked of the project in support of the strikers, and several others local unions have pledged support, Krieg said.
"Union members just don't cross any picket," he said.
According to the Associated Press, leaders of smaller trades unions are accusing the carpenters and drywallers union of expanding the work in the proposed contract, which would take work away from other union trades workers. Some unions say they will continue to cross carpenters' and drywall workers' picket lines until they have assurance that the language is gone for good.
Eric Franklin, a spokesman for the carpenters' council, said the contract language is no longer on the table in Oregon, but the union sought to retain it in Western Washington because it was tired of the smaller unions taking advantage of carpenters' efforts to attract new members.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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