Statement on Current Strike:
7/19/10
The Laborers’ District Council of Chicago & Vicinity,
along with Local 150 of the Operating Engineers, reached terms
tonight on a new 3-year contract with the contractors represented
by the Mid-America Regional Bargaining Association (MARBA),
effectively ending the strike against MARBA contractors immediately.
Long hours of negotiations led to fair concessions being made
by both sides. The contract provides increases that will help
protect our health care and pension funds amid skyrocketing
costs, and further solidifies the ability of a Laborer to provide
for his or her family with good wages and benefits. Work throughout
the area should resume as soon as possible.
We’d like to thank all the Laborers who helped picket over
the past three weeks, and all of our other brothers and sisters
in the building trades who stood in solidarity with us by honoring
our picket lines. Your unselfishness, dedication, and integrity,
especially in this time of economic hardship, truly make the
difference between begging and bargaining. The union movement
is stronger because of you, and America is a better place when
people like you have a voice.
Nobody ever wants to strike, but we cannot let employers take
advantage of us, and when a fair contract can’t be reached
through other means, we have no other choice. We do not need
to apologize for standing up for ourselves.
Once again, thank you all for your support and unity during
this extremely important contract negotiation.
7/15/10
On the heels of yesterday's agreement with the Chicago Area Independent
Contractors' Association (CAICA), hundreds of contractors have
signed agreements with us today, and many of those will now be
able to resume work. In addition, Local 150 has signed with the
Illinois Valley Contractors' Association today.
These agreements provide annual increases of approximately 3.25%
over the next three years to cover skyrocketing health care and
benefit costs.
All of that is good news, but the strike against MARBA is still
on, as they are still refusing to accept offers to meet before
their chosen date of July 19th. Unfortunately, that is keeping
many contractors employing people from across all trades locked
out. Companies working as subcontractors on MARBA projects are
at their mercy, even if they do sign the independent agreement.
Once again we'd like to thank all our union brothers and sisters
from throughout all building trades for your support. As always
since the beginning, our goal in this remains to get everyone
back to work as soon as possible without compromising our values
of fairness, respect and unity.
7/14/10
Striking Unions Reach Tentative Agreement with Independent Employer
Association
Agreement offers employers alternative to MARBA’s “stall tactics”
Early this morning, the International Union of Operating Engineers
Local 150 and the Laborers’ District Council of Chicago & Vicinity
reached a tentative three-year agreement with the Chicago Area
Independent Contractors Association (CAICA), one of the four
major employer associations that bargain on behalf of construction
contractors in the Chicago metropolitan area. Once ratified by
union members and delegates, this contract would provide annual
increases of approximately 3.25 percent over the next three years
to cover skyrocketing healthcare and benefit costs.
“This tentative three-year contract with CAICA will protect the
healthcare and benefits of the Unions’ members and get hundreds
of contractors back to work,” said James M. Sweeney, President-Business
Manager of Local 150. “There are about 1,300 small and medium
sized contractors in the area that will likely be eligible to
sign on to this agreement.”
More than 450 employers are currently signed to the CAICA agreement,
and others will be able to sign a “memorandum of agreement,”
making them signatory. MARBA currently has nearly 200 association
members, who will not be eligible to transfer their bargaining
rights to CAICA.
After MARBA delayed further negotiations until July 19th, it
became apparent that MARBA’s strategy was likely not only to
starve out union members, but also drive small and medium sized
contractors out of business by prolonging the work stoppage for
longer than these independent contractors can survive.
“There are a lot of contractors out there who don’t agree with
MARBA’s stall tactics because it will put them out of business,”
said James Connolly, Business Manager of the Laborers’ District
Council of Chicago & Vicinity. “Our union members are not
the only ones struggling during this strike. Plenty of contractors
are asking MARBA to stop playing games and negotiate a settlement.
This newly-signed agreement was negotiated with this in mind
and will give many contractors the opportunity to get back to
work.”
Still, the Unions’ offer to push up the negotiation date with
MARBA stands. “We reiterate our willingness to meet day or night
to work toward an agreement with MARBA,” said Sweeney. “To sit
and wait until next Monday to negotiate is a colossal waste of
time, and many independent employers agree with us on that, so
signing on to CAICA’s agreement gives them an alternative to
waiting for MARBA to take this situation seriously.”
This agreement further illustrates the fact that what the Unions
have proposed in negotiations with MARBA is reasonable. In recent
weeks, agreements have been reached in Peoria, the Quad Cities,
Northwest Indiana, and throughout the construction industry in
Northern Illinois for economic packages comparable to what the
Unions have proposed to MARBA, and which far exceed what MARBA
has offered.
7/13/10
Monday, the 12th, saw another day of negotiations come and go
with no agreement reached. MARBA left insisting that we not meet
again until next Monday, July 19th.
This lack of urgency on their part greatly disappoints us, as
does the fact that they refuse to offer a fair agreement in line
with other labor agreements that have recently been signed in
the area. They are using a public relations firm to spin the
story and make us look unreasonable. That couldn't be further
from the truth - we are actually asking for less than what many
of those other recent agreements settled for, and are simply
seeking to fund the benefits packages that were established,
in part, by THEM.
Laborers: please know that we fully recognize the gravity of
the situation and would not be asking you and your fellow tradespeople
to strike if it were not completely justified. Our goal is to
get you back to work as soon as possible, but you no doubt understand
that we cannot go back to work for what would be a terrible contract
that could cripple our trade and the send waves through the construction
industry.
This union has been around for over 100 years not because we
are greedy, but rather because we have always recognized what
is reasonable and fair - for our members and their employers
alike. We recognize that asking for too much could set the industry
back, and would never do that - we're simply asking for what's
fair and in line with other labor agreements. We will get back
to work as soon as MARBA recognizes this.
Their strategy is to stall, starve us out and make us so desperate
to return to work that we sign their unreasonable offer. Now
more than ever we need to show our unity and not let them take
advantage of us. Please continue to help out your local with
pickets and thank your union brothers and sisters for honoring
our strike.
7/9/10
We are approaching the 2-week mark of our strike against MARBA
contractors. Our contract was up at the beginning of June. We
worked without a contract for over a month in hopes that we could
negotiate a fair agreement without the necessity of a strike.
When MARBA left the room and decided to step away from talks
for a week, a strike became our only option.
That's the past. The present is this: Although progress was made
this week, The Laborers (united with the Operating Engineers
Local 150 in this negotiation) remain apart in the negotiation
process with employers. The employers are using the poor economy
as leverage to attempt to cripple our benefits funds and wages.
The increases that we are asking for are merely to keep our pension & welfare
packages properly funded without having to slash our wages.
We are meeting again with MARBA on Monday afternoon and hope
that more progress will be made. In the meantime, we are on strike
against all MARBA contractors, and we'd like to remind our brother
and sister Laborers and all other tradespeople what that means
and how important it is at this point in time to remain united.
Always remember: United We Bargain, Divided We Beg. As union
members, that is the heart of what we stand for. Only by uniting
and working together will we ever achieve the fair wages, benefits
and working conditions that we deserve. People are trying to
take that from you - we can prevent that from happening only
through solidarity.
Any action that undermines our strike is a win for the employers.
Crossing picket lines, sharing information, turning a blind eye
to certain activities, etc. Do not do it. It is during such difficult
economic times that these actions are most tempting, but it is
also during these times that we can demonstrate to the employers
just how serious we are about not being taken advantage of. Everybody
wants the strike to end, but everybody also needs to know that
it will not end or be compromised until a fair agreement is reached.
We're not there yet, but sincerely hope to be soon.
Please help out by contacting your local union hall to find out
where and when you can help picket. We need as many picketers
as possible.
Thank you for your help, understanding, patience, and solidarity.
Please check back for updates. |
