These guys are bugging me by their mere existence. I would understand them picketing in front of the contractor’s business office, but at the residential jobsite? Doesn’t the property owner have some recourse against this?
It’s bad enough that work is halted and all the scaffolding is still up and blocking the sidewalks and sunlight, but do these guys really have the right to picket a residence? I understand that it’s a jobsite, but it’s not the employer’s office, it’s not a commercial area, there is no commercial zoning on my block. And, if they’re striking it’s not a jobsite any more, really.
It didn’t bug me when people were outside the grocery store, picketing in front of the parking lot, where there are no residences, but this time it’s really bothering me! Every time I come or go from my building there are these guys standing around, smoking and loitering as far as I’m concerned. They make me feel the same way any other group of guys standing around would make me feel - like calling the police!
How does this work? The tuckpointing still needs to be done. Say I’m the building owner. Can’t I fire the contractor or union or whatever and hire someone who can get the work done? Am I an employer on some level and so have no recourse until the union and hiring contractor work something out? I hired someone for a certain price and timeframe, and now they can’t complete the work on time. The labor dispute is not my problem, the work not getting done is my problem, or is that not the case?
Tuckpointing is the process of repairing/replacing mortar in a brick wall. Older buildings shift and settle over the years, causing the mortar that’s holding the bricks together to crack and fall out in places. Tuckpointers are masonry experts who replace this mortar.
Typical of masonry work, tuckpointing is usually union-protected labor. The union is apparently striking, or a union has convinced the guys doing the work at this location to strike. I can’t call the cops because labor-related picketing is apparently 1st amendment protected, though I think I understand that Illinois has tried to limit picketers from doing so in front of private residences with little success (when the said picketing is labor-related).
The company they’re picketing is Continental Style, for low wages and poor working conditions, or something. I haven’t stopped to read the whole signs. Since most people are grateful just to have a job at all these days, these guys are just getting on my last frayed nerve, standing around outside with signs, saying their outdoor work is a poor working condition. There’s a WTF for ya!
Read your contract that you signed. Sounds like the contractor is not keeping up on his end of the contract. If he is violation of the contract then you have recorse.
unless the contract specifically says they have the right to hold you up for an undetermined amount of time with strikes then I would be looking in the phone book for non-union mortar workers.
Work has resumed. Unfortunately, that apparently doesn’t stop the picketing. There are still 1-3 guys standing out there with signs during working hours. Unless it’s raining.
Toads.
What else have I found out? The union PAYS these dudes to stand out there with the signs! Other residents are just as unhappy about it as I am, but as far as any of us have been able to find out, they have a legal right to be there, even though it’s in front of residences and they’re a nuisance to us.
The ironic part? The picketers get paid 1/2 what the tuckpointers do, if that, and the protest is about low wages!
I think you’re missing the point of picketing from the union’s POV.
You’re annoyed by it? That means they’re doing it right. Their whole goal is to make it so that next time (or even this time) you need to hire someone to do work, you’ll hire the union. If for no other reason than to avoid the annoyance of being picketed again.
What would the picketers be getting paid if they were doing the tuckpointing? I’m assuming that they’re not getting full union wages to picket, though I could be wrong. In any case the point isn’t about low wages, its about not using the union.