Labor practices protested

A 14,000-member carpenters union from Kansas is targeting a Colorado Springs construction site and three others in the state, claiming unfair labor practices against subcontractor Midwest Drywall Co. Inc. of Wichita, Kan.

For the past two weeks, several active and retired union members, along with supporters, have been standing with a large banner outside a retirement development being built at the southwest corner of Union Boulevard and Fillmore Street.

The banner says “Shame on Mac-Kenzie Place” and “Labor Dispute.”

At issue: “Midwest is a contractor that doesn’t pay area labor standards for their carpenters, fully providing health care for families and pensions,” said Pat Stewart, a representative with the Carpenters District Council of Kansas City & Vicinity.

Telephone calls to Midwest’s regional office in Denver and headquarters in Wichita were not returned. It’s unclear how many workers Midwest has on the site.

The union’s demonstration is not a picket line, union officials said, but is a public-awareness campaign calling for Midwest to change its labor practices. The demonstration has not stopped Midwest’s work on the project.

Unions exist to protect workers over issues such as health care and retirement benefits, said Donald Gardner, a University of Colorado at Colorado Springs management professor who specializes in labor relations and human resource issues.

“Any good union will try to get people who perform the same type of work the same wages and benefits, so contractors are competing over the quality of their management and not over the backs of the workers,” Gardner said.

Most construction contractors provide benefits for employees, said Kevin O’Gara, senior vice president of contractor JE Dunn, Rocky Mountain region. Dunn is a large national construction company that has an office in Colorado Springs but is not connected to the labor dispute.

“Typically, the salaries and hourly pay and benefits will be pretty close among all our competitors because you’re competing in the market for good laborers,” O’Gara said.

Demonstrators at the local site include a man who said he is from Amarillo, Texas. He said he had been working for four months for Midwest on MacKenzie Place but was fired because he could no longer lift heavy objects after he got a hernia on the job.

“The people working here aren’t insured, or their families. I was a laborer, now I can’t work anymore and have to have surgery,” said the man, who refused to give his name.

A spokesman for the general contractor for MacKenzie Place said he knows of no unfair labor practices involving Midwest. The $75 million retirement complex consists of 234 cottages, apartments and assisted-living units that will have a public preview July 26-28.

“We hire who we believe is a reputable firm to perform the work, and we do not know of any unfair practices they’re doing,” said Tom Tyksinski, vice president with Palace Construction Co. Inc. of Denver.

Phil Kalin, senior vice president with MacKenzie House, the developer of the 17-acre retirement project, said his construction site is caught in the middle.

“We’re in the dark — we have a contract with Palace, who subcontracts to Midwest. Unfortunately, the way the union is handling it is to direct it toward us, when we’re not part of the dispute,” Kalin said. “We’ve never heard anything about Midwest except they’re good contractors and treat their workers fairly.”

The union is also demonstrating against Midwest at a job site in Fort Collins and two in Avon, in addition to Colorado Springs, Stewart said.

Demonstrators are paid an “area standard wage” of $8.50 an hour to stand in the public right-of-way and hand out flyers to anyone who inquires, Stewart said. Local flyers refer to Midwest and Palace Construction as “rat” contractors.

“General informational campaigns are covered by First Amendment rights,” Gardner said, “so by calling it that, the union is saying it’s informing the public they think MacKenzie Place is not being constructed in a fair manner to the employees.”

Gardner said he’s skeptical as to whether the protest will damage Midwest’s reputation because Colorado Springs lacks a large number of union members.

Stewart disagrees: “We’ve had contractors that have put Midwest Drywall on notice, saying they won’t use them anymore.”