Work on Ohio University's Putnam Hall has garnered some extra attention from a labor union this week.
A group of about six union members wore signs to protest Mega Surplus, a Chillicothe-based company working on the renovations that is not unionized, said Denver Abicht, representative for the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 53. The informational picket began Wednesday at 6:30 a.m. and lasted until 2:30 p.m. and continued yesterday morning and ended in the early afternoon.
This was the second time union members have protested Mega Surplus at OU. The first was during construction at Bentley Hall.
Abicht said the picketers were not upset with OU or the contractor, but they wanted to call attention to problems they had with Mega Surplus. The picketers were trying to convince the company to unionize its workers, Abicht said.
Roger Johnson, whose wife now runs the company, is the retired owner of Mega Surplus. He said he is not against unions and for 12 years during the 1970s and 1980s he was a union member. Johnson withdrew from the union in the mid 1980s because of a dispute, but he is currently involved in negotiations with the union in District Council 12, based in Cincinnati.
Joe Crytser, lead program administrator for District Council 12, said he and Johnson have had three or four meetings
Negotiations are continuing and we are trying to work something out
he said.
Crytser said another negotiation meeting with Johnson is scheduled for today.
However, if Johnson and Crytser can work something out, the company would not join the Parkersburg, W. Va.-based District Council 53, which includes Athens, whose members were picketing. Crytser said it is against the union's constitution for a company to sign outside its home district.
Abicht explained the picketers were only encouraging Mega Surplus to join District Council 12. They support District Council 12 and their efforts and said District Council 53 would be willing to help Mega Surplus get back in the union.
Crytser, however, said sometimes pickets can do more harm than good if a company is dealing with one district and then gets picketed by another.
Abicht said they ended the picket because the Putnam project's largest subcontractor and union member, Valley Interior, asked them to stop while they were working on the project.
Abicht said the group had one other complaint: if the company could not be union, they wanted it to be local.
(We) believe in local work for local contractors he said.
Mega Surplus was subcontracted by another Chillicothe company, Huddleston Inc., which is the contractor on the Putnam Hall construction. Huddleston Vice President Don Anderson said he was surprised at the picket.
I can understand their concern with local people doing the work but we're from Chillicothe and local people don't always get jobs up here
he said. Everyone is being paid union wages
typically you see picketing (when a company is paying) non-union wages.
Of the five main subcontractors working on the project, the largest one, Valley Interior of central Ohio, is a union member.
Anderson said no Athens company bid on the Putnam project, but all of the subcontractors are within 60 miles of Athens and some local suppliers are being used for concrete, lumber and rental products.
John Kotowski, OU assistant vice president for facilities planning, said he would like to hire Athens companies, but by law the university is required to award the job to the lowest bid.
We can't limit it to an Athens company or a union company
he said.
OU projects almost always have a mix of union and non-union workers, Kotowski said.
We have to make sure projects we do are good quality projects and also a good value for the state of Ohio and the university
he said. We use contractors we feel can accomplish that for us.
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