When a maintenance supervisor came out onto the Blake Street sidewalk Wednesday afternoon, he wanted to know why carpenters were urging people to boycott the new Wintergreen apartment complex he oversees. He got an earful — and gave as good as he got. Click on the play arrow to watch; read on for the full story.
The heated verbal exchange took place at a picket staged by members of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters to protest the use of non-union labor at “Wintergreen of Westville.” That’s a new 293-apartment complex built on an old factory site by the West River, in the shadow of West Rock. The complex is almost completed; people have begun renting and moving into apartments.
Three apprentice carpenters and a union organizer stood by the entrance to the complex handing out leaflets urging people not to rent there because subcontractors used nonunion workers.
The organizer, Margaret Conable, said she spoke with workers for three of the non-union subcontractors on the job. They told her they’re earning $10 to $15 an hour, in cash, with no benefits, she reported.
When construction began in the spring, local African-American contractors and tradesmen protested about the same issue. They complained that they were losing jobs to exploited immigrant workers, many from out of town. (Click here to read a story on that earlier protest.)
“Think before you rent,” the leaflets passed out Wednesday urged people. The leaflet suggested that in addition to being exploitive, the practice of hiring non-union workers can cause building quality to suffer.
“Local workers deserve a chance, and all workers should be paid at local standard wages and benefits,” the flyer read. “How can this developer justify the $1495 a month rents they are charging?… Only the power of the consumer can make sure such an outrage is not rewarded in our community.”
The builder in charge of the job is Alabama-based Capstone. “There are no carpenters out there” on the job anymore, Eric Tweet (pictured), who runs Capstone’s satellite office on Fitch Street, said Wednesday. When carpenters were still working on the job, were they unionized? “It was multi. Some were union. Some were not.” He declined to discuss the issue further. “A couple of months, and we’ll be done.”
Jimi Cooper is the union carpenter arguing with the maintenance supervisor in the video at the top of this story. (The supervisor declined to identify himself.) Cooper said he last had work in July, when a job ended at the Yale Medical School’s new Amistad building. He saw the apartments going up at Wintergreen. He inquired about work, found no union jobs available.
“It’s tempting. I could have come here and been underpaid,” said Cooper (pictured). “But then we’d be playing ourselves.”
Cooper lives in New Haven, as does Patrick Charles (pictured at the top of the story). Charles graduated earlier this year from the city Commission on Equal Opportunities’ training program designed to teach local people trades so they can share in the local construction boom. Charles said he most recently worked a union job around the corner from Wintergreen, on Austin Street. He earned $13.33 an hour, plus benefits.