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Minority union members still struggle to work

Robert Sturgis, 53, an African American carpenter with 30 years' experience under his tool belt, wanted the kind of pay and benefits that can come with being in a union.

Robert Sturgis, 53, at his jobin Phila.
Robert Sturgis, 53, at his jobin Phila.Read more

Robert Sturgis, 53, an African American carpenter with 30 years' experience under his tool belt, wanted the kind of pay and benefits that can come with being in a union.

So, at a time when the building trades are trying to increase their minority participation, Sturgis, of Clementon, N.J., called the carpenters' union to help organize the five workers in his group - all of them African American.

The upshot?

Two of the three carpenters who voted in favor of the union were laid off this year by their employer, Westrum Development Co., of Fort Washington.

Although the Dec. 14 election, supervised by the National Labor Relations Board, was secret, the group was small enough that everyone had a pretty good idea of how the votes went - three in favor, one opposed, one contested by the company.

Westrum, whose city projects include Hilltop at Falls Ridge in East Falls, Brewerytown Square, and the Villas at Packer Park, says the layoffs were driven by economic forces that have pummeled the home-building industry.

"It's a genuine crisis in the whole industry," said spokesman Kevin Feeley. Westrum had 300 housing starts in 2006, 160 last year and "we're still at zero this year."

"We laid off 25 percent of our workforce, about 20 people," he said. "These were the only two union employees" and they were chosen because work dried up at their projects, not because of their union activity.

The union says the layoffs were retaliatory - and has filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board.

"I believe because they wanted to be union - that's why they were laid off," said Robert Naughton, director of organizing for the union Sturgis called, the Metropolitan Regional Council of Philadelphia and Vicinity of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners.

"They are very upset," he said.

Whether the layoffs are because of retaliation or the economy, they illustrate some of the difficulties that construction unions may have in increasing minority membership, a response to Philadelphia's City Council demands in connection with the $700 million Convention Center expansion.

Unions complain that employers routinely find reasons to fire pro-union workers, even though that practice is illegal. Also, a sagging economy can trump union expansion plans.

Naughton discounts Westrum's economic theory because, he said, Westrum has already hired outside contractors to do the work, known as "punch" carpentry. Feeley said Westrum had only used those contractors in the past to supplement their own employees' work in busy periods, but there are no busy periods on the immediate horizon.

"Punch-out" carpenters, like Sturgis and his colleagues who are also known as pre-title pre-warranty technicians, come through the completed homes, acting as all-purpose handymen, troubleshooting and completing any small job that still remains on a punch, or to-do, list.

Now Sturgis wonders whether he'll be laid off - he's the most senior of the workers, but also the only remaining pro-union punch carpenter.

"Here is an opportunity for five minorities who want to be in a union and get union benefits," Naughton said.

"Westrum could have started negotiating then and there. But they hired a labor lawyer and filed objections to the election." Westrum withdrew its objections Monday.

"We're ready to negotiate with that bargaining unit," Feeley said.

Ironically, the Metropolitan Council is one of a handful of local construction unions that have refused to provide its demographic information and diversity goals to City Council.

The refusal of the carpenters to provide the information has angered some council members and many of the leaders of the other construction unions, who resent the carpenters' union's special treatment. The carpenters' union is the largest of all the building trades.