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Category Archives: Unions

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Should Organizers of Rowdy Union Pickets Be Prosecuted?

By Wally Zimolong on Posted in Unions

In cities like Philadelphia, trade union picketing of a non-union construction site is common place.  Mostly the picketing is tame,.  Occasionally, the unions step it up a notch and bring out a rat or two.  However, sometimes, like in the Goldtex dispute, these protests become rowdy, disruptive, and violent.  Often the owner of the non-union… Continue Reading

Anti-Union v. Anti-Union Tactics

By Wally Zimolong on Posted in Picketing, Unions

Is the controversial Goldtex project the beginning of the end for the last union-town in America?  Ryan Briggs over at HiddenPhilly.org has an interesting piece that explores this question.   I have been an outspoken proponent of what the developers of the Goldtex project are doing.  I applaud them not because they are trying to bust up… Continue Reading

Section 303 Private Rights of Action: What Do If You Receive a Letter from the Carpenters’ Union.

By Wally Zimolong on Posted in Picketing, Secondary Boycott, Unions

Yesterday, I talked about how the Carpenters’ Union has been sending letters to neutral employers threaten to picket a job site if a merit shop contractor were permitted to perform work on that site.  I received multiple inquiries asking what a contractor can do if they are the target of such a letter.  The most… Continue Reading

PLA Fails to Prevent NYC Strike

By Wally Zimolong on Posted in Project Labor Agreements, Secondary Boycott, Unions

The Concrete Union strike in New York and subsequent walk off on the World Trade Center Memorial and Madison Square Garden projects  made minor fanfare this week.    What many do not realize is that the Concrete Union was the signatory to a project labor agreement (“PLA”) covering these project which is supposed to prevent… Continue Reading

NLRB Fails to Tag Carpenters YouTube Video

By Wally Zimolong on Posted in Picketing, Unions

In a shocking decision, the NLRB recently ruled that the Carpenters Union did not violate Section 8(b)(1)(A) of the NLRA when it infiltrated a non-union contractor’s job site, videotaped non-union employees, and then posted the edited video on YouTube. In Metropolitan Regional Council of Carpenters (Forcine Concrete), the Board addressed  an unfair labor charge based upon a YouTube… Continue Reading

Union Labor Loses Grip on NYC Construction

By Wally Zimolong on Posted in Project Labor Agreements, Unions

Recently, the Regional Plan Association published a report “Construction Labor Cost in New York City,” which highlighted how union construction firms continue to lose market share to merit based firms.  A copy of this report is available for download here.  The report comes on the heels of a recent New York Times article regarding the… Continue Reading

Unions Challenge Iowa PLA Ban

By Wally Zimolong on Posted in Construction Labor Law, Unions

According to the Des Moines register, two union trade organizations have sued Iowa Governor  Terry Branstad and 10 other elected officials over Governor Branstad’s executive order banning Project Labor Agreements on Iowa Public Projects.  A copy of the Executive Order can be downloaded here:  Iowa PLA Executive Order The Complaint challenges the removal of PLA’s from… Continue Reading