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Contract ratification

$100 Plus Story

  • NYC Carpenters Save Hiring Hall

    On March 27, New York carpenters voted down several contracts with proposed work-rule changes that would have effectively eliminated the union hiring hall.

    Frank Spencer, the trustee appointed by the International following the removal of former Executive Secretary-Treasurer Michael Forde for racketeering, negotiated a number of contracts for the New York City District Council of Carpenters' (NYCDC) with oddly named "full-mobility" provisions promoted by contractors.  So-called "full-mobility" provisions grant contractors the ability to hand-pick individuals whom they favor, without relying on referrals from the hiring hall.  This leaves workers more vulnerable to being frozen out of work if they report safety and labor law violations, or employer failure to comply with the contract.

    Currently, contractors are already able to select two-thirds of the individuals on a job and are only required to use hiring hall referrals for the remainder.

    Yet at the same time that contractors were going after the hiring hall, a brand-new union was attempting a raid on the NY/NJ docks.

    Dockbuilders from local 1456 in New York, Long Island, and New Jersey have been voicing their dissatisfaction with the recent merger of their local with Timbermens local 1536, into the newly created local 1556.  The Amalgamated Carpenters, a new affiliate of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, recently approached these dockworkers to change their affiliation.

    The Amalgamated Carpenters, who were only established last summer, are currently headed by attorney Angelo R. Bisceglie Jr., who is listed as both the union's President and legal counsel.  As reported by the NYTimes on March 7, Mr. Bisceglie once served as labor counsel for Thomas Petrizzo, a New Jersey businessman described by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a member of the Colombo crime family.  

    More recently, as reported by Real Estate Weekly, Bisceglie represented John Holt when Federal Monitor Walsh removed him from his post in the NYCDC for allegedly violating job referral rules; Eric Gunderson, when, according to the NYCDC, he was arrested for an attack against a retired police officer; and John Harkin, after he was forced to resign following a Walsh investigation into unauthorized union expenditures.

    Bisceglie describes his relationship with Petrizzo as beginning and ending a decade ago, with arbitration in Federal Court over a couple million dollars; describes the charges against Holt and Gunderson as honest mix-ups, and the charges against Harkin as "total bull***."  Furthermore, he states that, "Contrary to what the District Council is spinning out there, we are not a mobbed-up union at all. They have me labeled as this mob attorney, which is total crap, and I want to set the record straight."

    The position of newly elected NYCDC Executive Secretary Treasurer Michael Bilello however, is clearly contrary to this.  "Corruption and the mob won't be tolerated. You can't just change your name and set up shop across the street and get out from the federal oversight," Bilello said.  "These are people who were players in this organization who were removed or vetoed from their positions or resigned based on findings of corruption on their part."

    Presently, the Amalgamated Carpenters appear to have been defeated in a recent National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) vote.  According to a preliminary vote count released by the NLRB on March 29, with 1061 dockworkers eligible to vote, 819 votes were cast, with 361 in favor of remaining with the NYCDC, 186 to affiliate with the Amalgamated Carpenters, 7 votes for no union at all, and 265 challenged ballots which have yet to be counted.  (An additional 46 ballots were void.)

    A statement released by EST Bilello praised the dockworkers for refusing "to be misled by false promises of those that have proven in the past that they cannot be trusted."  He goes on to state that while the fight is not over, "with this vote our members have delivered a tremendous blow to the criminal elements that are seeking to obstruct our progress forward."

    But of course the NLRB vote was not the only important issue being voted on by New York carpenters.  

    Votes on the proposed contracts which would eliminate the hiring hall were recently counted as well.  They revealed that members rejected all but one of the negotiated contracts.  Scaffold carpenters alone approved their contract with the Hoisting Trade Association.  The contract passed by a margin of 74-29; however this contract only affects members of their specific craft.

    The proposed contracts with the Building Contractors Association, the Cement League and the Wall, Ceiling and Carpet Industries were all defeated by approximately 1,600 to 800.  The proposed contract with the Greater New York Floor Coverers Association was voted down 123-94.

    EST Bilello, while not campaigning as actively against "full mobility" as he had during his bid for office, did declare in a March 13 membership meeting that, "I couldn't in good conscience do an about face and change my stance on that [full mobility] because … it's not something I was in favor of, and so I voted against it."

    The expired contracts will continue to remain in effect until June 30, 2012.  This leaves EST Bilello three months to negotiate new contracts, that won't leave Carpenters feeling like they've agreed to give away what some might consider the union's primary function: getting its members good work, for a fair wage.

UDR Story

  • Court Action by Rank and File Carpenters

    By Cassie Fleming and Joshua Douglass

  • New Carpenters Call for Direct Members Vote

    Court Action by Rank and File Carpenters Blocks Quick Ratification of CBA that Eliminates Hiring Rights. New Leadership Calls to Conduct Direct Membership Referendum on CBA.
     
    New York carpenters elected a member with a long record of fighting for reform to the top spot of the 25,000 member District Council in December, just in time to win a key legal battle delaying a vote on tentative agreements that would eliminate the union hiring hall. Mike Bilello, a 36-year member who started campaigning for union democracy nearly two decades ago, was elected Secretary Treasurer with nearly 63% of the almost 5,000 votes cast. Bill Lebo, his running mate for Council President also won.  A month after taking office, Bilello's administration and the council's powerful 100-member Delegate Assembly unanimously called for a membership referendum on the agreements. 

    The election follows a two-and-a-half-year long trusteeship imposed by the International after Michael Forde, the prior EST, was removed in a 2009 racketeering scandal, for which he is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence. Frank Spencer, the International trustee, had sought a quick vote on tentative collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) he negotiated that would end decades-old hiring rights that refer one third of all carpenters jobs based on qualifications and seniority. The CBAs also included 20% pay cuts for many carpenter jobs. 

    A few days before taking office, Bilello testified in support of an action in federal court brought by rank and file carpenters seeking an injunction to stop the ratification until carpenters and the 100 members of the Delegate Assembly, who are elected by the locals, had a chance to review the provisions of the agreements. 

    Many members view the hiring provisions as the key to contract enforcement, protecting them against retaliation for health and safety complaints, and preserving dignity on the job. The agreements eliminate the 2-1 system in which a third of all jobs are referred through the hiring system according to seniority and job skills. Employers hire the other two-thirds directly from the membership and can easily skip over members who complain about contract violations or health and safety violations. In other construction unions where members lack hiring rights, grievances and safety complaints are rare or non-existent. Members passed over for work in retaliation for filing such complaints must rely on federal bureaucracies such as the NLRB, OSHA, or the EEO, as opposed to the grievance machinery. 

    To be ratified, the tentative agreements needed approval of a majority of the 100 members of the Delegate Assembly. The delegates were elected local by local last fall. Spencer sought a quick vote of the assembly on January 10, the day before installation of the new officers. At its second meeting, under pressure from below to reject the agreements, the Assembly unanimously adopted an extraordinary measure to hold a membership referendum on the agreements by mail ballot conducted by the American Arbitration Association. 

     ______________________________
    “It was complete silence at a time when it was most
    important to get this information     to the members.”
      ______________________________

    “It was the end-all for due process rights," said Demian Schroeder, a nine-year member and shop steward, who was a plaintiff in the case. "No mass mailings, no robo calls, no newsletter, no announcement. It was complete silence at a time when it was most important to get this information to the members." 

    The carpenters argued in court that members and delegates need adequate time to review the CBAs. In December, a federal judge had ruled that the UBC was required to post proposed CBAs online for two weeks. Bilello testified at the hearing on January 6, just days before he was sworn in as EST, that the vote be postponed because important provisions of some of the contracts had been left off the union's website. 

    Carpenters report that the Delegate Assembly and much of the membership is divided over the CBAs. The employer associations are threatening a 20% wage cut if the CBAs are rejected, and a rival-union sponsored by the Painters union, an AFL-CIO affiliate, has petitioned the NLRB for representation of important areas of jurisdiction. If the Painters are successful, the NYCDC could lose countless jobs. UBC President Douglas McCarron disaffiliated from the AFL-CIO in 2001. 

    After a decade’s long battle for members' rights, Bilello is in the strongest position possible to wage a campaign to protect what is left of carpenters' right to fair hiring and to rebuild a union plagued for years by corruption and organized crime influence.  His testimony in support of the Carpenters action in federal court and his support for the membership referendum are promising signs. It remains to be seen whether he will speak out in favor of the crucial hiring rights and how hard he will campaign for them. 

  • Longshore workers in novel contract referendum

    Members of the International Longshoremen's Association were set to vote in November on extending their contract covering the whole East Coast. The union administration urges ILA members to vote yes. An organized opposition campaigns hard for rejection. The issues in dispute, to an outside observer, are complex, even bewildering. All that would be normal and could hardly attract attention. But what is unusual and does command interest is the extent to which the opposition has won the ability to reach the membership with its message.

  • Shorts: transit, communications, release time...

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    In Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181:

  • Surrendering to the internet: Democrats in spite of themselves?

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  • How the Ironworkers and Pipefitters rig trusteeships

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  • Railroad workers on right track for unity

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    Members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) adopted three amendments to their union constitution providing for the direct election of national officers by the membership. Previously, officers were elected by convention delegates. The three measures were adopted by votes of around 4,500 to 2,500 in a membership referendum. The BLET is now affiliated to the Teamsters as a national division.

  • 100 DC 37 pickets demand: One member, one vote!

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    One hundred members of AFSCME District Council 37, from various locals, picketed their union's headquarters in Lower Manhattan on September 27, chanting loudly in unison: One member, one vote. They want to change the system for electing top district officers. Currently, officers are elected by council delegates from some 50 affiliated locals. The picket line, demonstrating for direct membership election, is the first sign of a serious campaign within DC 37 for the change.

  • Social Security office attack on AFGE splits union leaders

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