Homeless picket for union - By LUCIA GRAVES, McClatchy Newspapers
Neil Bernstein, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis who specializes in labor and employment law, said unions that use such a tactic are guilty of practicing a double standard.
'They're basically doing what they're criticizing the employers for doing -- getting the cheapest people to do the job,' he said.
Douglas McCarron, the Las Vegas-based president of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, did not respond to several interview requests.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said in a brief interview that he saw nothing wrong with unions hiring homeless people as picketers.
'The fact that the people demonstrating were not members of the union doesn't make much difference,' Sweeney said. 'What matters is that the carpenters working on the building had no health care and no pension.'