Connecticut Laborers’ District Council To Protest This Monday Morning Against New England Carpenters’ Agreement With Associated General Contractors That Splits Union Harmony & Loss Of Jobs
(live-PR.com) - (Hartford, CT) – Over 100 members of the Connecticut Laborers’ District Council (CLDC) are planning an organized protest this Monday morning, May 5, 2008 from 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in front of the New England Carpenters Local #43 offices, 885 Wethersfield, CT and the Associated General Contractors (AGC) of Connecticut, 912 Silas Deane Highway, Wethersfield, CT in reaction to an agreement that was recently reached between the Carpenters and AGC that conflicts with a longstanding agreement already operating with the CLDC.
“Instead of promoting union harmony and encouraging job growth here in Connecticut, the New England Carpenters in the Hartford region have decided to create an agreement with the AGC that conflicts with the duties of the Laborers’ on the average jobsite. This is part of the Carpenters’ never-ending attempt to fragment the construction building and trades. They are targeting us because we recently joined the AFL-CIO’s Building and Trades last month,” explained Charles LeConche, business manager, Connecticut Laborers’ District Council. “This is a truly a fight for jobs and our families here in Connecticut. If this agreement is followed, over 40 jobs will be lost at the Hartford Insurance project in Windsor, CT and probably more at the UBS construction project in Stamford, CT. By rejecting our compromises, the New England Carpenters are only promoting union discord and higher building and construction costs in the long run”.
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The New England Carpenters are headed by George Meadows, business manager, Local #43, 885 Wethersfield Avenue, Hartford, Connecticut, phone (860) 296-8564 and Glenn Marshall, regional manager, 427 Stillson Road, Fairfield, Connecticut, phone (203) 846-2003. More information about the New England Carpenters can be viewed at www.necarpenters.org.
“After several meetings which the Laborers’ initiated to keep union harmony and peace, all of our offers were rejected specifically by George Meadows, head of the Carpenters in the Hartford area. Rather than demonstrating at an area job site and disrupting an ongoing construction project, I thought we would go right to the source of the problem and protest this Monday morning in front of the Carpenters’ headquarters,” said LeConche.
A division of the Connecticut Construction Industries Association, the Associated General Contractors of Connecticut is the state chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America. Headed in Connecticut by John Farnham, the Associated General Contractors of Connecticut represents commercial, industrial, and institutional construction contractors, subcontractors, material suppliers and professionals serving the construction industry. The offices are located at 912 Silas Deane Highway, Wethersfield, CT, phone (860) 529-6855, www.ctconstruction.org.
The Connecticut Laborers’ District Council represents approximately 7,000 members employed in the construction industry and other building and trade fields throughout the state. The Laborers’ International Union, founded in 1903 largely by immigrant workers, includes more than 800,000 members who work in construction and hazardous materials remediation, as well as in healthcare, the U.S. Postal Service and other public service sectors of the economy. For more information, call 860.296.8697.