Atlanta Journal and Constitution, February 8, 2005, Tuesday

Copyright 2005 Atlanta Journal and Constitution
Atlanta Journal and Constitution

February 8, 2005, Tuesday

HEADLINE: Carpenters union hires stand-ins for picket lines

BYLINE: By Mike Tierney

BODY:

On a clear, crisp midmorning ripe for choreographed hell-raising, they are gathered at one of Atlanta's most recognized street corners.
Most are jobless, many homeless, but none hapless. Two hours of work -- and 16 bucks, guaranteed income -- await.
A car pulls up to the curb at Five Points and unloads picket signs just outside 34 Peachtree Building, target of today's demonstrations.
"You guys working or going home?" Chris Freitag booms in a New Yawk accent. His business card says "Special Projects Representative -- Southeastern Carpenters Regional Council." That means protest maestro for the labor union of wood artisans, nearly all of whom are elsewhere with their saws and their drills while stand-ins march.
This is payday for the protesters. Freitag shouts, "If you're working two hours today, you get paid for four."
A cheer erupts. Arms, several covered by tattered clothing, are raised jubilantly. Freitag smiles and says, to nobody in particular, "Money talks."
So does noise -- lots of it, day after day -- believes the council, which represents carpenters in Georgia and both Carolinas. Clapping and chanting, the hired oral hit men prey on high-rises under renovation. The annoyance factor is much higher when buildings are occupied. The pickets mostly march downtown, where crowded walkways guarantee a substantial audience.
The union's aim: to compel contractors to pay what it considers fair wages.
It's an unusual strategy in the labor movement -- asking not that union workers be hired, only that workers collect union-level wages.
The council generally endorses at least $ 20 an hour, about $ 5 more than the average hourly wage for a metro Atlanta carpenter, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Although council leaders say it's not among their goals, raising the pay scale for all area carpenters ultimately could make it more cost-effective to hire union.
Some labor activists question the council's use of for-hire pickets. Others say the union's building-by-building strategy offers short-term gains but doesn't ensure union contracts -- or even union-standard wages -- on future jobs.
But proponents say it's just the sort of kick-in-the-pants innovation the American labor movement needs.
Council leaders maintain the unorthodox methods are making inroads in an anti-union city in an anti-union state in an anti-union region of the country. Strategist Steve Shelton, Freitag's boss, claims 81 percent of downtown high-rise rehab work through December involved contractors paying at least some carpenters what the union considers fair wages and benefits, up substantially from 23 percent when sidewalks out front of those buildings were quieter.
Mary Hill, vice president of construction for the regional office of international developer Hines, says the union has made its mark.
"They have obviously had a dramatic impact on area wages," she says.
Some building owners and managers question the union's figures.
While the council takes credit for improved compensation at the Georgia-Pacific building, for example, a company spokeswoman says G-P made no changes after meeting with union leaders. The company merely confirmed paying what the union defines as area standard wages and benefits, she says.
An oval of marchers, borrowing from the American soldiers' cadence call, shout, "I don't know but I've been told ... One Park Tower is a big rathole."
Inside the 30-story tower at 34 Peachtree, home to local operations of giant companies such as MCI and Sprint, leasing and property manager Paul Kelly sighs. He is caught in the crossfire of a battle of wills, both sides seemingly entrenched. Only two negotiations between the carpenters union and the building owners have been held, the latter a few months ago.
Kelly says the union's wage goals are unreasonable given that the building's office space rents for about $ 10 a square foot, down 50 percent from two years ago and down substantially from downtown's real estate heyday in the 1980s.
The owner has no choice but to hire contractors based largely on the lowest bid, which usually means below-union wages, he says.
Two tenants cite the pickets as a reason they may move, Kelly says, and the pace of new rentals has flattened.
He finds it especially galling that the rabble-rousers aren't carpenters, saying, "Those guys are doing so well (with their jobs), they cannot afford to leave them to come down here."
Freitag counters, "To get the point across, we've got to use some abrasive tactics that are not going to make everybody happy."
The union's success in raising wages so far is "not because the (contractors) have had a change of heart all of a sudden," Freitag says. "It's because they don't want a hundred of us in front of the building."
Mike Murrell, owner of the restaurant that bears his name on the ground floor of 34 Peachtree, has been caught in the fray. The constant references to rats raises unpleasant suggestions to diners, he says.
"People come in to enjoy their lunch, and they have to listen to all of that? I support unions, but it seems like they have a personal vendetta," he says. "They want to fight you."
Shelton says he modeled the campaign on similar ones in Phoenix and San Diego. The driver here, he says, is that carpenters' pay has not improved appreciably in two decades, despite the union's push for better wages.
"I did it the Southern way and got nowhere," says the South Carolina native. "You kick and kick and kick, and wages keep going down, and it's a race to the bottom."
The Southeastern arm of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America has allotted $ 1.2 million for such activities this year, including $ 500,000 for the surrogate sign-carriers. The project is funded by $ 20 monthly dues from members -- nearly 2,000 of whom live in metro Atlanta -- and from a portion of each paycheck the union gets when it signs a contract for a job.
Only a small fraction of local carpenters belong to the union.
It's a tough time for the labor movement -- economically and politically -- and it needs to try fresh, bold approaches, union leaders and experts agree.
"Some people find that tactic (of hiring nonunion marchers) a little strange. I don't have a problem with that," says Richard Ray, president of the Georgia AFL-CIO, the state branch of the national union heavyweight. The carpenters' council is not affiliated with AFL-CIO.
Regarding the council's stated aim of raising wages, rather than pushing for union contracts, Ray says unions are "facing a challenging environment."
"We take any victory that we can."
Yet some contend the carpenters union must go beyond piecemeal wage commitments from building owners and develop a broader plan to grow membership and strengthen its ability to secure contracts.
"I'm sure the union's long-time goal is a bargaining agreement," says Lance Compa, who teaches labor law at the Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations in Ithaca, N.Y. "It seems like they've started out on a step-by-step basis."
Union carpenters benefit indirectly from increased pay, the analysts say. If contractors are willing to observe an area standard wage, they might then decide to hire union members, knowing those workers are skilled and licensed.
The council, having expanded from its downtown core to Midtown, is eyeing activity as far north as Buckhead, even the Perimeter. Targets near a MARTA rail stop are ideal to provide the usual crew of pickets a way to get to work, Freitag says. But he's willing to hire homemakers with midday hours to spare in these more residential areas.
Shelton insists the sign-waving and slogan-chanting is a last resort. "We show up for a demonstration when we get no response" to the offer of a meeting with building owners and managers, he says.
"What are we supposed to do? Accept it and go away?"
He acknowledges the blueprint has not been universally applauded in the labor movement. He does not care. "The results," he says, "speak for themselves."