Union to do informational picket of private contractor at Community

Construction is under way on the Community Regional campus for a new 88,000-square-foot medical office building and a six-story parking structure to be completed by spring 2009.

Carpenters Union Local 701 has notified Community Regional Medical Center that it plans to engage in peaceful, or informational, picketing May 2 against a general contractor working at a construction site on the downtown hospital’s 58-acre campus.

The picketing is not directed at Community Medical Centers or the hospital, but stems from a labor issue that the union has with Matt Construction Corporation, the general contractor selected by Community to build a new parking structure. Matt Construction, in performing its fiduciary responsibility, awarded a low responsive competitive bid for concrete work to Kiggins Construction Company which uses non-union carpenters.

Local 701 indicated it plans to picket at the gate that Matt Construction uses. Other workers will be directed toward neutral gates that are not subject to the picketing. The union said it will start picketing at 6:30 a.m. May 2 and will end at 3:30 p.m. on May 16.

Community will be monitoring the situation to make sure it does not interfere with patient care or disrupt employees’ work day.

In the past, Community has utilized both union and non-union construction labor based on competence and cost.

This story was reported by Erin Kennedy. She can be reached at ekennedy@communitymedical.org.

Thursday, May 01, 2008