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:: Wednesday, August 11, 2004 ::

Carpenters sue for lost wages By Paul Merrion, Crain's Chicago Business, IL
The AFL-CIO normally plays an intermediary role when two unions have such a disagreement but the carpenters union withdrew from the national labor body more than three years ago.

“Now they have to go to the NLRB and federal court,” says William Marutzky, a Chicago attorney with the law firm of Querrey & Harrow, who has represented both unions in the past. “A lot of trade groups are infringing on the carpenters.”

The Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters is seeking lost wages and benefits for members who couldn’t work for about five days last month when Laborers Local 4 picketed a construction project in Chicago.

The complaint filed last week in federal district court in Chicago alleges that on July 30, Local 4 illegally picketed Chicago-based Salamone Builders Inc., a subcontractor on a high-rise condominium building near Millennium Park.

The objective, according to the complaint, was “forcing or requiring Salamone to assign the clean-up of trim work to employees who are in the Laborers,” union, even though Salamone’s workers are represented by the carpenters’ union.

Salamone was forced to leave the job site until the NLRB threatened an injunction to stop the picketing, according to the complaint.

At a rate of about $45 an hour, the carpenters union is seeking about $14,400 in lost wages and benefits for eight workers because they lost a week of work, said Mr. Ketterman.

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