One Labor Union's New Approach To Protest - Rent A Picketer.
MayorBob.
Posted to Business on Thu Jul 26, 2007 at 07:25:05 AM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.
They can be seen all over the District of Columbia -- picketers marching with posters outside buildings employing non-union labor. They'll be chanting slogans like: "What do we want? Fair wages. When do we want them? Now." But, if you approach them and ask them individually about the issues underlying the sloganeering you're likely to not get much of answer. That's because many of the picketers in the line don't belong to the union they're protesting for. For many of them this is their sole source of income, because normally they're homeless and jobless.
Often as not, these "temporary workers" are being paid to walk the picket lines set up by the local chapter of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters (UBC). They are rounded up out of homeless shelters and paid (US)$8 an hour to voice the union's protest about low-wage, nonunion workers employed on the site. But the local in DC isn't the only UBC local which uses non-members to voice their protest. UBC-affiliated locals all over the country employ the same tactic for their picket lines. "A shift in the paradigm" of picketing is how one UBC spokesperson in Kentucky described the strategy.
The reason you will find nonmembers working in these "area standards campaigns" (as one leader put it) is that the regular members are gainfully employed at well paid jobs elsewhere. Occasionally, other labor unions will criticize the strategy, saying it "wouldn't create a very positive impression on me, nor would it create a very sympathetic position." But, for the most part, the rest of organized labor isn't about to pick a fight with the UBC over it. A spokesperson for the AFL-CIO says there's a difference between what the UBC is using the homeless for - "informational picketing" - and picket lines set up for strikes and boycotts. The UBC belongs to a coalition of seven unions which broke away from the AFL-CIO in 2005 partially in protest to what it saw as a lack of aggressiveness in trying to organize workers. John Boardman, an official with UNITE HERE says, "let's focus on the message -- that there are people in this building that are working for substandard wages and benefits."
Other critics point out that, although the homeless picketers are paid above minimum wage, they receive no benefits. They see it as undercutting a principle organized labor has struggled a long time to establish. Others view it as a sign of the times and the labor movement using lemons they have been handed to turn into lemonade - in an age of declining union membership, use nonmembers to help organize the movement. Some homeless advocates criticize the strategy also. Ingrid Reed coordinates job placement and housing at the 1350-bed Federal City Shelter (the largest and most comprehensive facility of its kind in America). Reed says the union should be offering the homeless apprenticeship programs rather than picketing pay: "These jobs won't pay the rent. If they're out there every day Monday through Friday, when are they looking for a job?" But one picketer, a resident at a woman's shelter said she's appreciative for the work:"It's about the cash. We're against low wages, but I'm here for the cash."
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