In recognition of Earth Day 2012 the New England Carpenters Training Fund is sponsoring a FREE electronics Recycling on Monday, April 23, 2012 at the New England Carpenters Training Center (NECTC), 13 Holman Rd, Millbury, MA 01527.
Items may be dropped off between the hours of 7:00 AM and 2:30 PM (any day this week or on Monday, April 23).
Please call the NECTC at 508-792-5443 to let them know if you will participating so they have an idea of when you will arrive and the items you will be bringing.
Information sessions are being held for members who would like to learn more about degree programs available through the union at Wentworth Institute of Technology. Two sessions are scheduled in the coming weeks.
Saturday, April 21 at 10AM: 750 Dorchester Ave., Boston, MA
Saturday, May 5 at 9 AM: 13 Holman Rd., Millbury, MA
Learn more general information about the program by clicking here.
While we love the convenience and immediacy of sharing news and information through the “Council Update” and on NERCC.org and social media platforms, we know not every carpenter is active online. So the New England Regional Council is committed to continuing to produce the New England Carpenter magazine and deliver it to every member’s home.
The latest issue of New England Carpenter magazine has rolled through the presses up in Salem, Massachusetts at Deschamps Printing. You’ll notice some changes in this issue, including some new design elements and more (and bigger) pictures of union members and union projects!
We’re featuring a cluster of stories about member involvement in area standards demonstrations and introducing the Union Participation Program, which will plug active members into ongoing union efforts to protect standards and win more work opportunities.
Hats off to Local 94 members Eric Furtado and Robert Andrioli who volunteered their time and labor to build a handicap ramp at a VFW Post in Providence, Rhode Island.
The Post is being reopened by local-area veterans. Creating handicap access to the facility was a crucial component of these preparations.
Members of Carpenters Local 94 in Rhode Island unanimously ratified a new, two-year collective bargaining agreement at a meeting last Saturday. The contract was negotiated with the Associated General Contractors of Rhode Island and includes increases of $1.50 each year.
Seventy-five cents is being added to wages this month. The remaining seventy-five cents for the first year will be added to benefit contributions in January. The allocation for those increases will be determined in December by member vote.
The second year of the agreement is also schedule to include a wage increase of seventy-five cents in June and an increase to benefit contributions of seventy-five cents in January of 2013.
Language changes made to the agreement included mostly housekeeping issues such as a change from benefit stamps to electronic receipts for employer contributions to benefit funds.
The collective bargaining agreement with the Construction Industries of Rhode Island included a wage reopener, only. Wage and benefit changes negotiated as part of the AGC agreement will be applicable to the CCRI contract, but language changes will not.
Both the AGC and CCRI agreements will expire on June 2, 2013.
Rhode Island Carpenters Local 94 and affiliated apprenticeship and training programs are participating in Rhode Island Construction Career Days today and tomorrow. Union representatives and training instructors are talking to thousands of high school and middle school students about careers in carpentry and affiliated trades.
Students are getting a chance to see and hear what things are like from some union carpenter apprentices who might've been in their shoes not too long ago. Brothers Christopher Costa, Floorcoverers Local 2168, Stephen Dias Carpenters Local 94, Shawn Rios, Carpenters Local 40 and Matthew Higgins and Emerson Ocampo, both from Carpenters Local 33 are showing off their skills with the screw gun and drywall and some concrete forms.
An undocumented immigrant has filed a lien for wages he's owed for work he performed for a drywall subcontractor...on an immigration center.
The worker--calling himself "Jose" in the Target12 story (embedded below)--did work on a Federal Immigration Center in Johnston, Rhode Island. He says he was hired by Ocean State Drywall and owner Joseph Pagliaro. In the video a visibly nervous Pagliaro confirms that the man worked on his job and that he knows him, but denies that he employed him or ever paid him cash for wages. He claims that another subcontractor hired "Jose" but does not mention the subcontractor's name or identity.
Calson Corporation is the general contractor on the project, which is owned by a company named Atwood Development, LLC in Johnston. It is being leased to the federal government for ten years.
"Jose" claims he is owed more than $2,300 dollars. He says neither he nor another undocumented coworker was ever asked for proof of residency.
"Jose" reached out to NERCC Organizer Matt Murphy for help because he's been cheated out of wages in the past and had had enough. Murphy and other organizers in the area have been working with "Jose" to try to get the money is rightfully owed for work he did.
On Saturday, members of Rhode Island Carpenters Local Union 94 unanimously approved a new agreement with the Construction Industries of Rhode Island for heavy and highway work. The four year agreement will provide hourly increases for total wages and benefits of $1.50 in the first year and $1.75 in the second year. Total package increases for the third and fourth year of the agreement will be the same as what is negotiated for the building agreement. A two-year agreement for building work was completed last week.
Coming soon...more negotiations This year is a busy one for the New England Regional Council when it comes to collective bargaining. In addition to the Western Massachusetts and Rhode Island contracts, three other agreements covering four New England states are set to expire before the end of 2009. The final carpentry contract will be negotiated next year. The contracts, and their expiration dates are: Boston/Eastern Massachusetts--September 30 Massachusetts Floorcoverers Local 2168--August 31 Northern New England(Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont)--September 30 Connecticut--May 2010
The New England Regional Council of Carpenters and Rhode Island Local 94 released the following statement regarding a new collective bargaining agreement with Rhode Island building contractors.
This morning, members of Carpenters Local 94 of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters voted overwhelmingly to approve a new 2-year agreement negotiated with the Rhode Island Associated General Contractors and return to work immediately. The agreement provides an hourly increase in combined wages and benefits of $3.25 over two years. Of that, $1.50 will be added in the first year of the agreement and $1.75 in the second. Increases will cover rising costs of benefits with likely minimal, if any, wage hikes. The agreement covers building work only; a contract with heavy and highway contractors has not been reached and those carpenters remain on strike.
As a union we work very closely with our partners in the industry--including subcontractors, general contractors owners and developers--to stay on top of industry trends and conditions. We understand the financial troubles that are currently impacting the construction industry. That is why we worked so hard to negotiate a reasonable agreement that balances those concerns with those of rank-and-file carpenters who build the highest quality projects in Rhode Island.
The brevity of the work stoppage clearly demonstrated that neither side wanted a strike. We’re pleased that our members will be returning to work and using their skills to help employers build a better Rhode Island.
The New England Regional Council of Carpenters and Rhode Island Local 94 released the following statement regarding the current strike.
On June 20, nearly four hundred members of Carpenters Local 94 unanimously voted to reject the final offer of the Rhode Island AGC for a new collective bargaining agreement. The previous four-year agreement expired on June 7. At that time the AGC representatives were unable to determine who had the authority to bargain on behalf of the employer association, so the union agreed to a two week extension.
On Friday, June 19, employer representatives submitted a final offer which they insisted be presented to the union’s membership.
In the wake of the membership vote, the Carpenters Union stands ready to continue negotiations at any time. The Union believes it is not in the best interests of either party or the state’s construction industry to negotiate in the media and calls on the employers to return to the bargaining table and finalize a mutually acceptable contract so that carpenters across Rhode Island can return to work.
Though many union carpenters are on strike, carpenters employed on construction projects governed by project labor agreements (PLA) continue to work as well as those employed by the dozens of construction employers who have expressed a desire to continue working with the union by signing interim agreements with the union.
The Carpenters union has always enjoyed a cooperative and professional relationship with the AGC and all construction employers in the state of Rhode Island. Through cooperative training and benefit programs, we have worked to train and retain the best trades workers in the industry. It is through this partnership that union contractors have been able to produce the highest quality work at competitive prices for their clients. The Union looks forward to returning to the bargaining table and re-establishing that partnership with the AGC.
Two days into Rhode Island Carpenters’ statewide strike against commercial and heavy/highway builders, the Providence Journal Bulletin has published a story about the impasse.
The story includes quotes from both the union and a representative of the Associated General Contractors (AGC). The union statements (included below) emphasize the need to return to the bargaining table and resume the positive, cooperative relationship the union has had with signatory contractors. Unfortunately, the AGC maintained no such level of professionalism or respect.
Eric Anderson, executive director of the Rhode Island AGC characterized union carpenters as "kids" whose strike is "nutty" and "a power play on behalf of the carpenter’s union to dominate the construction industry."
Mr. Anderson apparently doesn’t think union carpenters are smart enough or considerate enough to make their own decisions, telling the paper that carpenters’ wives and significant others would put pressure on members to accept whatever deal management offered: "eventually we’ll get to that and people will start to become more reasonable. That’s what we hope will happen soon."
Union carpenters understand that a strike is not a frivolous thing. The members of Rhode Island voted by a margin of more than 400-1 to reject the last offer and strike. They didn’t do it because they wanted to lose their trucks or homes anymore than contractors want to drive their businesses into the ground by sitting idle.
As is the case in many local unions around the country, union carpenters in New England are facing new collective bargaining agreements that provide very little, if anything, in the way of wage increases. Rather, carpenters are focusing on protecting health and retirement benefits. It is an unfortunate function of the current economic times. But those benefits don’t only protect members, they reduce the burden on all taxpayers by lowering demand on public assistance programs.
Carpenters are not "kids" interested in pushing aside our Brothers and Sisters in the Building Trades. At the same time, the AGC’s "cookie cutter" approach to negotiating and its threats to start negotiations from scratch do nothing to protect and promote positive labor relations between the union and the AGC in the future.
Mr. Anderson suggested that contractors in Rhode Island might try to keep projects on schedule by brining carpenters down from Massachusetts. But union carpenters in Massachusetts have expressed strong solidarity with their Brothers and Sisters in Rhode Island, making it unlikely members would cross state lines and union strike lines.
Members in Rhode island are encouraged to visit the story at the Providence Journal and voice their opinion on their actions in the comments section after the story. All union carpenters--no matter where they live--can voice their support for our Brothers and Sisters in Rhode Island by submitting their own comments. Go to the story on the Providence Journal’s website and leave a comment in the section following the story. Remember, the paper reserves the right to delete comments it finds objectionable and rude or immature attacks do not generate support for union members. Comments are moderated and may not show up immediately. Only submit them once.
As a result of a unanimous vote by the members attending this morning’s well attended membership meeting, Carpenters Local 94 has rejected the final offer from the AGC Labor Division and the Construction Industries of Rhode Island (the road builders) and are now on strike.
All building and heavy/highway members of Local 94 are instructed not to report to work starting on Monday June 22 until further notice. Exceptions to this are the projects at Blue Cross, Women and Infants and FM Global, which are covered by PLAs and will continue to work. Any members who have questions should call the union hall at 401-467-7070.
All stewards are to report to the union hall on Monday at 7am for instructions.
Electronic updates will be provided, through the Council Update and on NERCCBlog.com as soon as negotiations resume. Rhode Island members will also receive updates through automated phone messages.
Members of Carpenters Local 94 in Rhode Island will hold a meeting to vote on current contract proposals on Saturday, June 20 at 9:00 am. The meeting will be held at Local 94's union hall at 14 Jefferson Park Road in Warwick.
The union and contractors had agreed to a two-week extension of the previous agreement, effective June 7. That extension will expire on Sunday, June 21. If members do not approve a new contract, they will vote to strike all commercial construction and heavy/highway sites beginning Monday, June 22.
Contract negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement in Rhode Island between the New England Regional Council of Carpenters, Local 94 and the AGC Labor Division and the Construction Industries road builders have not been completed.
Both of the associations and the union have agreed to a two week extension, with the understanding that any increase in wages or benefits will be retroactive to June 7. As a result of this extension, the membership meeting scheduled for Sat June 6 has been canceled. Another meeting has been scheduled for Saturday June 20 at 9 am at the Carpenters Local 94 hall to consider contract proposals.
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