Court limits concrete workers' picketing

Precision Concrete went on a counter-offensive against the Building Trades Organizing Project, obtaining a temporary restraining order barring Las Vegas picketers from blocking or impeding project entrance sites.

Last week's order also bars picketers from attempting to close or lock access gates to Precision job sites and from entering job sites where Precision Concrete is working.

About 85 Precision walked off the job July 28, accusing the company of unfair labor practices.

A hearing on a preliminary injunction sought by Precision is set for Sept. 2.

Neither side was completely happy with the restraining order. Greg Smith, Precision's attorney, said it should have gone further. BTOP Director Bob Ozinga said the order could be read in a way that would bar all union members from job sites where Precision is working.

While the company won an order preventing strikers from restricting access to job sites, it did not get an order it sought barring strikers from threatening or harassing non-strikers or damaging vehicles owned by Precision employees.

"We wanted some more restrictions placed on the unions," Smith said.

However, Judge Mark Gibbons' order was limited to access issues. One of the provisions restrains BTOP officials and related union members from "entering on any job site where Precision Concrete is engaged to perform work."

"The way we read it, any union member who enters any site at which Precision Concrete is at work would be in contempt of court," Ozinga said. "We're between a rock and a hard place."

However, Ozinga applauded the ruling in that in only applied to issues of access. He denied the allegations of violence contained in Precision's suit.

"We find those allegations unbelievable," Ozinga said.

But affidavits filed in the suit accuse strikers of blocking supply trucks at a project for the Las Vegas Convention Center. Separate affidavits accuse some strikers of threatening workers who aren't participating in the walk-out, knocking out the windows and slashing the tires on the vehicle of a Precision employee. Another affidavit accuses a striker of telling a wife her husband would be killed if he didn't join the strike.

At the same time, the unions say there has been violence against strikers. Jim Sala of the Carpenter's Union said at the Majestic Runway project, where Precision is working, a Precision pick-up truck slowed down, then accelerated toward the picket line. One striker was injured and had to have nine stitches, Sala said. Sala said strikers have been threatened.

BTOP, an organizing consortium of 15 construction trade unions, has focused on the concrete industry in recent weeks. A week-long walkout by workers at Kukurin Concrete ended last week and MS Concrete workers staged a two-day walk-out in late July.

While BTOP has accused the companies of failing to provide rest breaks and water, the companies have denied those allegations, saying it is their policy to provide both.

More activity may be forthcoming. At a rally Sunday, BTOP and concrete workers said they would escalate strike activity industry-wide beginning Sept. 16 if what they called unfair treatment of workers does not cease.

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