Carpenters Union leaders shaft members? - By Carol Marin, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
When it comes to union clout and political muscle, it's hard to beat the Carpenters.
But Mike Prate may have done exactly that -- to the tune of $10 million.
Prate, who spent his childhood in an orphanage and foster homes, learned early to be tough. At 20, he was shingling roofs. By 1972, he opened a roofing company, Prate Installations, in Wauconda. By 2002, he had $30 million in annual revenue.
But then came the war with the Carpenters Union.
'I'm not anti-union,' Prate said Tuesday, 'I work with four unions every day.'