Building Industry Wages And Salaries

In a sign of escalating tensions in the weeklong strike by non-union carpenters, an Irvine contractor has brought a lawsuit against the Carpenters Union for allegedly using violence and threats to disrupt two major apartment building projects in Orange County. Following the suit by Regis Contractors Inc., Superior Court Judge C.

A group of non-union construction workers demonstrating for higher wages went on a "destructive rampage" Friday morning, injuring several workers and tearing down two homes under construction, a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy said. About 150 framers took three chartered buses to a housing tract under construction at 9:45 a.m. and left "little more behind than firewood," said Deputy Diane Hecht. The damage was estimated at $6,000.

Four hundred years ago, buccaneers roamed the Spanish Main, plundering galleons heavy with silver spewed out by the mines of Mexico's Guanajuato state. But now Guanajuato exports something entirely different: men. Over the last three decades, hundreds of men from one small village alone--El Maguey--have taken the 1,300-mile road north from central Mexico. Nearly every one finds the same job: Nailing up drywall for Southern California's housing industry. Many of them are related.

As dozens of non-union carpenters picketed outside, about 20 framing contractors met Tuesday in Costa Mesa in an effort to resolve a 2-week-old labor strife that has disrupted projects and caused increased tension around Southern California. Framing contractors said nothing was decided at the meeting, though they discussed establishing a joint trust fund that could provide workers health insurance and other benefits.

Sixty-eight drywall construction workers, demanding union representation and higher wages, were arrested in Hollywood Thursday after scuffling with police officers during a demonstration that spilled over onto the Hollywood Freeway, temporarily stalling traffic, authorities said.

Non-union carpenters walked off 18 housing construction sites around Southern California on Monday to protest what they said were unfair low wages paid by housing contractors. The regional offices of the carpenters union, which organized the walkout, said several thousand carpenters, mainly Latino, had left their jobs to protest wages that typically are $80 a day--less than half the prevailing union level of $180 a day in wages and benefits.

Police officials are seeking a court order to quiet striking drywall workers who for more than a week have demonstrated outside a construction site, forcing the deployment of two police squads to keep peace in the small west side neighborhood. Police Chief Joseph T. Molloy said Wednesday that he did not want to deny the workers' right to protest but rather to end what he described as a continuous barrage of insults and taunts hurled at his officers by angry workers.

More than 50 striking drywall workers who were arrested last week after storming a construction site have been released on their own recognizance, leaving nearly 100 others still in custody, many of them facing probable deportation. Hearings on whether the 149 workers should be tried on trespassing charges begin Thursday.

H ey, what's with you guys? Can't you follow a simple script? Let's go over this one more time: Look, you hang drywall. You bust your hump all week and make peanuts. Most of you come from Mexico. Some are in this country legally, some not. In any case, don't cause trouble. Then there are home builders who hire you. They're the ones with the boats and the martinis. They live in the houses you build. They have the friends in high places.

A federal Immigration and Naturalization Service official said Monday that INS officers interviewed 52 striking drywall workers in custody over the weekend and intend to use the information to investigate some of the men's employers. "They've given us a lot of real solid leads," said John Brechtel, assistant director for investigations at the agency's Los Angeles office.

In a sign of escalating tensions in the weeklong strike by non-union carpenters, an Irvine contractor has brought a lawsuit against the Carpenters Union for allegedly using violence and threats to disrupt two major apartment building projects in Orange County. Following the suit by Regis Contractors Inc., Superior Court Judge C.

Non-union carpenters walked off 18 housing construction sites around Southern California on Monday to protest what they said were unfair low wages paid by housing contractors. The regional offices of the carpenters union, which organized the walkout, said several thousand carpenters, mainly Latino, had left their jobs to protest wages that typically are $80 a day--less than half the prevailing union level of $180 a day in wages and benefits.

After a summer of picketing, vandalism and lawsuits, drywall workers won a major victory Thursday when some of Southern California's largest drywall subcontractors agreed to negotiate with a union to settle the 4-month-old strike. The subcontractors, who met Thursday, issued a one-sentence statement saying "a number" of them had agreed to talk to the carpenters union about representing 4,000 drywall workers in Southern California.

Drywall subcontractors were to meet today at a secret location and discuss whether to settle a rash of lawsuits in return for agreeing to a union for their workers. Hundreds of workers walked out June 1 demanding higher wages and a union. The business of hanging drywall in houses employs 4,000 in Southern California, which makes the organizing drive the nation's largest, union officials say. Drywall is hung in broad sheets to form the inner walls of buildings.

Is the drywall strike that has slowed home building across Southern California near an end? Drywall subcontractors are to meet Thursday on whether to let employees have a union--a major breakthrough for the strikers. Until recently, most subcontractors had bitterly opposed a union. But after three months of fighting pickets, construction-site vandalism and lawsuits, some subcontractors now favor settling the strike.

Striking drywall workers filed nine more class-action lawsuits Thursday against drywall companies for allegedly violating the Fair Labor Standards Act and not paying any overtime. The lawsuits, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, bring the number of class actions against previous employers to 15, said Robert A. Cantore, a labor attorney who filed the actions on behalf of 1,000 striking drywall workers in Orange, Riverside, San Diego and San Bernardino counties.

Southern California's home builders Friday denounced the violence and vandalism in a six-week-old walkout by several thousand drywall workers while 250 of the strikers, their wives and children protested outside. The home builders' powerful trade group, the Building Industry Assn. of Southern California, had kept a low profile in the bitter dispute.

The hands of Antonio Vasquez seem to tell the story. The fingers on his big and paw-like hands have thickened like fat sausages from more than 16 years of drywall construction work. "I can remember the good years," Vasquez said during an interview in Spanish at his home Wednesday. "Well, '73 was good and so was '77 and 1979. That's when my daughter Nancy was born, and I used the medical insurance from my union to help pay for the hospital bill."

An immigration judge Thursday threw out the government's case against a striking drywall worker who faced expulsion from the United States as more than 200 of the laborers staged another large demonstration at a construction site in Anaheim. Immigrant rights attorneys claimed a legal victory after an immigration judge in Los Angeles terminated the deportation case of drywall worker Carlos Garcia Lara.

Police officials are seeking a court order to quiet striking drywall workers who for more than a week have demonstrated outside a construction site, forcing the deployment of two police squads to keep peace in the small west side neighborhood. Police Chief Joseph T. Molloy said Wednesday that he did not want to deny the workers' right to protest but rather to end what he described as a continuous barrage of insults and taunts hurled at his officers by angry workers.