Operating Engineers Local 150 defends strike on Toll Road project 2/19/2009

The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 strike on a Toll Road project isn't being universally observed. A handful of "lab testers" who have voted to join that union someday have continued to cross picket lines and earn a paycheck while dozens of other union workers sit at home without work.

"We're not a part of this strike, so we're still working," one of the lab testers told me earlier this week. One insider who's been involved with the three-year project since day one, told me, "This can lead to an economic mess for everyone involved." The 10-mile widening project along that stretch of Toll Road is one of the largest road construction projects taking place in this region, with a due date of 2010. ITR Concession is required to conduct the project as part of its Toll Road lease agreement with the state. However, if this strike isn't settled soon, it can delay the project and cost dozens of strikers their jobs, I'm told. "This strike is a shameful representation of all the good that unions used to stand for," stated the alleged family member's e-mail, dated Feb. 10. Local 150 represents some 23,000 employees in Indiana, Illinois and Iowa, making it one of the largest local unions in the country. Strike purpose isn't clear

When I met with Local 150 strikers sitting in their vehicles at Grant Street and Virginia Street in Gary, near Toll Road entrances, they were polite but still couldn't elaborate on the purpose of the strike.

One source, who's not with the Local 150, told me it was over the firing of a union worker who used the n-word on the job against a co-worker. "That demands automatic termination," he said. "There's a zero-tolerance policy."

However, he pointed out, this reason is only being used to mask the real reason behind the strike: To gain leverage while unionizing those lab testers. Plus, that firing has now led to an appeal process that can linger for several weeks, further delaying the project and keeping workers jobless, he noted. Ed Maher, communications director for Local 150, said the 80 to 90 union workers are voluntarily honoring the strike over "multiple unfair labor practices" by contractors involved with the ITR Concession group.

"Those contractors have violated the National Labor Relations Act," said Maher, without getting into details. Maher noted that negotiation efforts are being made to settle the strike, but he could offer no timetable for an agreement. Maher also could not substantiate or refute the allegation that the strike's source was the firing of a union worker. But he did acknowledge that the families of the striking union workers have a valid reason to be upset amid this scary economy.

"Both sides are trying to come together," he could only say.

The e-mail from the alleged family member sums up best what I've heard from a couple of other families of striking workers, although they refused to give me their names. "I can understand if rights have been violated, prevailing wages not honored, or benefits cut, but a strike for the sake of a few technical testers working without union cards when 90% of the workers are union, is absolutely ludicrous," the e-mail states. You have to admit. If you were one of those 80 to 90 striking workers not earning your normal income each day, simply for the sake of a few nonunion workers, "ludicrous" may be putting it mildly.

Contact Jerry Davich at 648-3107 or jdavich@post-trib.com. Check out his blog at http://blogs.post-trib.com/davich/