Unions Hire Homeless to Picket, Pay Low Wages & No Benef
Toro @ Sun Feb 12, 2006 7:27 pm
You have got to be kidding me.
$1:
Are unions crossing line with homeless pickets?
Stand-ins hired to make a ruckus outside nonunion sites lack rank-and-file benefits.
WASHINGTON -- You've heard the panhandler's common refrain, "Will work for food."
How about: "Will picket for food?"
In Washington, Baltimore, Atlanta and elsewhere in the country, union organizers are scouring shelters and recruiting homeless people to staff their picket lines, paying just above minimum wage and failing to provide health benefits.
The national carpenters' union, which broke from the AFL-CIO four years ago in a bitter dispute over organizing strategies and other issues, is hiring homeless people to stage noisy protests at nonunion construction sites.
"We're giving jobs to people who didn't have jobs, people who in some cases couldn't secure work," said George Eisner, head of the union's mid-Atlantic regional council in Baltimore.
The carpenters who belong to his union, Eisner explained, are gainfully employed. With homes and offices being built or renovated and real estate booming in many urban areas, he said, the union carpenters are too busy to join the picket lines.
"Work is good, and our members are working," Eisner said. "This is just the best thing for us to do at this point."
But the new strategy of placing homeless in picket lines disturbs some labor experts.
Neil Bernstein, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis who specializes in labor and employment law, said unions that use such a tactic are guilty of practicing a double standard.
"They're basically doing what they're criticizing the employers for doing -- getting the cheapest people to do the job," he said.
Douglas McCarron, the president of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, did not respond to interview requests.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said he saw nothing wrong with unions hiring homeless people as pickets.
"The fact that the people demonstrating were not members of the union doesn't make much difference," Sweeney said. "What matters is that the carpenters working on the building had no health care and no pension."
When it was noted that the homeless pickets also had no benefits, Sweeney responded: "Our hope is that those workers -- that all workers -- would have health benefits, but that is a bigger issue."
Sweeney expressed the hope that the homeless protesters "may work themselves into a full-time job where they would get benefits."
A demonstrator in Washington, Nicey Howards, said the temporary protesters earn $8 an hour -- just a dollar above the legal minimum wage in Washington -- with no benefits. While she felt the job wasn't ideal, Howards was glad she could earn a little money while looking for something better.
Each week, Howards said, she works 20 hours, the maximum time allowed by the carpenters' union, bringing home $160.
The union organizers allow the hired protesters to take two-minute breaks, Howards said, but dock their pay for the time off.
Stand-ins hired to make a ruckus outside nonunion sites lack rank-and-file benefits.
WASHINGTON -- You've heard the panhandler's common refrain, "Will work for food."
How about: "Will picket for food?"
In Washington, Baltimore, Atlanta and elsewhere in the country, union organizers are scouring shelters and recruiting homeless people to staff their picket lines, paying just above minimum wage and failing to provide health benefits.
The national carpenters' union, which broke from the AFL-CIO four years ago in a bitter dispute over organizing strategies and other issues, is hiring homeless people to stage noisy protests at nonunion construction sites.
"We're giving jobs to people who didn't have jobs, people who in some cases couldn't secure work," said George Eisner, head of the union's mid-Atlantic regional council in Baltimore.
The carpenters who belong to his union, Eisner explained, are gainfully employed. With homes and offices being built or renovated and real estate booming in many urban areas, he said, the union carpenters are too busy to join the picket lines.
"Work is good, and our members are working," Eisner said. "This is just the best thing for us to do at this point."
But the new strategy of placing homeless in picket lines disturbs some labor experts.
Neil Bernstein, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis who specializes in labor and employment law, said unions that use such a tactic are guilty of practicing a double standard.
"They're basically doing what they're criticizing the employers for doing -- getting the cheapest people to do the job," he said.
Douglas McCarron, the president of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, did not respond to interview requests.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said he saw nothing wrong with unions hiring homeless people as pickets.
"The fact that the people demonstrating were not members of the union doesn't make much difference," Sweeney said. "What matters is that the carpenters working on the building had no health care and no pension."
When it was noted that the homeless pickets also had no benefits, Sweeney responded: "Our hope is that those workers -- that all workers -- would have health benefits, but that is a bigger issue."
Sweeney expressed the hope that the homeless protesters "may work themselves into a full-time job where they would get benefits."
A demonstrator in Washington, Nicey Howards, said the temporary protesters earn $8 an hour -- just a dollar above the legal minimum wage in Washington -- with no benefits. While she felt the job wasn't ideal, Howards was glad she could earn a little money while looking for something better.
Each week, Howards said, she works 20 hours, the maximum time allowed by the carpenters' union, bringing home $160.
The union organizers allow the hired protesters to take two-minute breaks, Howards said, but dock their pay for the time off.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar ... 50336/1001
Blue_Nose @ Sun Feb 12, 2006 7:32 pm
Hmm... I won't be wearing my UBCJA t-shirt anytime soon 
ziggy @ Sun Feb 12, 2006 7:34 pm
Toro Toro:
You have got to be kidding me.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar ... 50336/1001
$1:
Are unions crossing line with homeless pickets?
Stand-ins hired to make a ruckus outside nonunion sites lack rank-and-file benefits.
WASHINGTON -- You've heard the panhandler's common refrain, "Will work for food."
How about: "Will picket for food?"
In Washington, Baltimore, Atlanta and elsewhere in the country, union organizers are scouring shelters and recruiting homeless people to staff their picket lines, paying just above minimum wage and failing to provide health benefits.
The national carpenters' union, which broke from the AFL-CIO four years ago in a bitter dispute over organizing strategies and other issues, is hiring homeless people to stage noisy protests at nonunion construction sites.
"We're giving jobs to people who didn't have jobs, people who in some cases couldn't secure work," said George Eisner, head of the union's mid-Atlantic regional council in Baltimore.
The carpenters who belong to his union, Eisner explained, are gainfully employed. With homes and offices being built or renovated and real estate booming in many urban areas, he said, the union carpenters are too busy to join the picket lines.
"Work is good, and our members are working," Eisner said. "This is just the best thing for us to do at this point."
But the new strategy of placing homeless in picket lines disturbs some labor experts.
Neil Bernstein, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis who specializes in labor and employment law, said unions that use such a tactic are guilty of practicing a double standard.
"They're basically doing what they're criticizing the employers for doing -- getting the cheapest people to do the job," he said.
Douglas McCarron, the president of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, did not respond to interview requests.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said he saw nothing wrong with unions hiring homeless people as pickets.
"The fact that the people demonstrating were not members of the union doesn't make much difference," Sweeney said. "What matters is that the carpenters working on the building had no health care and no pension."
When it was noted that the homeless pickets also had no benefits, Sweeney responded: "Our hope is that those workers -- that all workers -- would have health benefits, but that is a bigger issue."
Sweeney expressed the hope that the homeless protesters "may work themselves into a full-time job where they would get benefits."
A demonstrator in Washington, Nicey Howards, said the temporary protesters earn $8 an hour -- just a dollar above the legal minimum wage in Washington -- with no benefits. While she felt the job wasn't ideal, Howards was glad she could earn a little money while looking for something better.
Each week, Howards said, she works 20 hours, the maximum time allowed by the carpenters' union, bringing home $160.
The union organizers allow the hired protesters to take two-minute breaks, Howards said, but dock their pay for the time off.
Stand-ins hired to make a ruckus outside nonunion sites lack rank-and-file benefits.
WASHINGTON -- You've heard the panhandler's common refrain, "Will work for food."
How about: "Will picket for food?"
In Washington, Baltimore, Atlanta and elsewhere in the country, union organizers are scouring shelters and recruiting homeless people to staff their picket lines, paying just above minimum wage and failing to provide health benefits.
The national carpenters' union, which broke from the AFL-CIO four years ago in a bitter dispute over organizing strategies and other issues, is hiring homeless people to stage noisy protests at nonunion construction sites.
"We're giving jobs to people who didn't have jobs, people who in some cases couldn't secure work," said George Eisner, head of the union's mid-Atlantic regional council in Baltimore.
The carpenters who belong to his union, Eisner explained, are gainfully employed. With homes and offices being built or renovated and real estate booming in many urban areas, he said, the union carpenters are too busy to join the picket lines.
"Work is good, and our members are working," Eisner said. "This is just the best thing for us to do at this point."
But the new strategy of placing homeless in picket lines disturbs some labor experts.
Neil Bernstein, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis who specializes in labor and employment law, said unions that use such a tactic are guilty of practicing a double standard.
"They're basically doing what they're criticizing the employers for doing -- getting the cheapest people to do the job," he said.
Douglas McCarron, the president of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, did not respond to interview requests.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said he saw nothing wrong with unions hiring homeless people as pickets.
"The fact that the people demonstrating were not members of the union doesn't make much difference," Sweeney said. "What matters is that the carpenters working on the building had no health care and no pension."
When it was noted that the homeless pickets also had no benefits, Sweeney responded: "Our hope is that those workers -- that all workers -- would have health benefits, but that is a bigger issue."
Sweeney expressed the hope that the homeless protesters "may work themselves into a full-time job where they would get benefits."
A demonstrator in Washington, Nicey Howards, said the temporary protesters earn $8 an hour -- just a dollar above the legal minimum wage in Washington -- with no benefits. While she felt the job wasn't ideal, Howards was glad she could earn a little money while looking for something better.
Each week, Howards said, she works 20 hours, the maximum time allowed by the carpenters' union, bringing home $160.
The union organizers allow the hired protesters to take two-minute breaks, Howards said, but dock their pay for the time off.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar ... 50336/1001
Wow!
$1:
AFL-CIO President
I lost any respect I had years ago for AFL-CIO.
I can make $700.00 min./day working non union oilpatch and Half that working the union job I spent 22 years at. Guess that shows where the money is going.(dues),never again.
Knoss @ Sun Feb 12, 2006 7:55 pm
I think unions should restrict picketing to striking workers. I am convinced that many unions are not as willing to help workers as those on top.
The other problem is when a union relies to much on such confrontational approaches. Unions are good when they represent the workers and are open with employers, but when they begin to pressure everyone they cause nothing but trouble.
Ripcat @ Mon Feb 13, 2006 6:11 am
Eight dollars an hour! Thats gotta be better than what American companies ae paying their call center employees in India! 
Moogle @ Mon Feb 13, 2006 7:27 am
Unions honestly disgust me.
No offense meant to anyone, but they have the audacity to complain and bitch that they only get paid $30 a hour for some shit factory job, well guess what?! $30/h is more than I've ever made, it's more than either of my parents have ever made.
Greedy fucking unions ruined America already and they're working on ruining us.
ziggy @ Mon Feb 13, 2006 7:37 am
Moogle Moogle:
Unions honestly disgust me.
No offense meant to anyone, but they have the audacity to complain and bitch that they only get paid $30 a hour for some shit factory job, well guess what?! $30/h is more than I've ever made, it's more than either of my parents have ever made.
Greedy fucking unions ruined America already and they're working on ruining us.
No offense meant to anyone, but they have the audacity to complain and bitch that they only get paid $30 a hour for some shit factory job, well guess what?! $30/h is more than I've ever made, it's more than either of my parents have ever made.
Greedy fucking unions ruined America already and they're working on ruining us.
Last contract the union got for me made sure the raise they negotiated went right into their pension plan.
Most unions make themselves the #1 priority,not the workers although they try and make it appear that way.
Moogle @ Mon Feb 13, 2006 7:43 am
Speaking on the topic of Unions, they control a lot more power than they like to tell people about. After Buzz Hargrove was released from the NDP, you can bet that the 200,000+ union members aren't going to be voting for the New Democratic Party anytime soon.
ShepherdsDog @ Mon Feb 13, 2006 7:47 am
Ripcat Ripcat:
Eight dollars an hour! Thats gotta be better than what American companies ae paying their call center employees in India!
US $ 8.00 an hour or even 5, in India, is a shit load of money!!! People in Canada make that in call centres where the cost of living is a hell of a lot higher.