:: rawblogXport ::

:: Friday, March 26, 2004 ::

Carpenters’ union protest nonunion job with little help from rat pack By RYAN GILLIS
SALEM — A group of local tradesmen are staging an informational picket outside Sekely Industries Inc., protesting what they say is nonunion labor being used on a construction project inside the business.

For a second day, members of the Ohio and Vicinity Regional Council of Carpenters gathered outside the Pennsylvania Avenue facility to protest the hiring of Hudson-based contractor C.T. Taylor Co. for carpentry work inside.

Roy Houser, business representative for the council, said C.T Taylor is a “non-signatory” with his organization, meaning the contractor does not employ union-represented workers.

He said the company has been hired to install a large foundation for a 50-ton press. As part of the protest, the carpenters have brought in the now-infamous giant inflatable rat commonly used in such situations.
In fact, the first rat was joined by a second inflatable rat on the opposite side of the street, across from the business.

Although he said the organization’s argument is not with Sekely Industries, Houser said the company did try to keep the pickets away from the area on Wednesday. “They came out and tried to keep us from putting the rat up over there,” he said.

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