Members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 8 walk the picket line Friday in Rossford. Visit www.sent-trib.com to watch a video.
J.D. Pooley | Sentinel-Tribune
ROSSFORD — Several unions have been picketing the new UPS construction site on Glenwood Road and representatives spoke at the recent Rossford council meeting on June 13.
“We intend to be here as long as it takes,” said Joshua Abernathy, spokesperson for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 8. “We wanted a fair shake on this project. They didn’t look locally on this project.”
Part of the picketing is drawing attention, because it has included large inflatable animals: Scabby the Rat, Fat Cat and Greedy the Pig.
According to Abernathy, a strike is taking place against Horvath Electric, of Twinsburg, which is the electrical contractor working on the new UPS distribution site that is currently under construction.
The new facility, located at 950 Glenwood Road, is expected to be approximately 125,000 square feet and will be used for local distribution.
Mayor Neil MacKinnon III commented on the ongoing situation.
“It’s their right to do that. Their headquarters is in Rossford, Ohio. I’ve spent my entire professional life in the building trades. I’m pro-union. Rossford’s a union town,” he said. “My job, at the end of the day, is to support local — but at the same time attract industry, for economic development. Once I’ve accomplished that, I try to talk with whoever is doing that economic development into looking at using local. After that, my job is finished. I’m definitely pro-union and pro-local.”
Abernathy said that the Cement Masons Local 86 and Iron Workers Local 55 have also picketed the job site. As he explained it, the electricians were removed from the site for a week, and according to laws related to picketing, they are only allowed to picket when their workers are actively working on the site.
“One of the electricians was fired. Actually, three of them were. They signed cards and the guy who offered up signature cards for an election, he was fired that evening and told not to come back to the project. That’s when the unfair labor practice strike started. Then, basically, two other sympathizers consequently lost their jobs, because they were out on strike,” Abernathy said. “Two more of them came out on this unfair labor practices strike with the IBEW and they were asked to not come back to the site.”
The IBEW claim is that the initial firing happened on or about June 9 at 8:12 am, according to Abernathy, and “our strike started on that Friday, when they fired our union sympathizer.”
He said that the company had seven electricians working on the site. Three walked off the site and four remained.
He said the union has filed with the National Labor Relations Board for unfair labor practices.
Abernathy explained what an elections card is.
“It’s a card that gives authorization (for a union) to represent on a project,” he said.
Abernathy described the other union’s reason for picketing as due to violations of “Area Standards,” or payment below wage standards set by local union contracts.
The IBEW is waiting for the filing to be heard by the NLRB.
“We want them to recognize their union rights. They have a right to form a union, and not be discriminated against for attempting to do so,” Abernathy said.
Rossford officials met with IBEW Local 8 attorneys Wednesday afternoon.
“They made a public records request to ask for the site plan materials to look at,” Rossford Law Director Kevin Heban said. “The site plan that was originally submitted in November of last year, and ultimately approved by the planning commission, allowed for two temporary accesses to the property for the construction.”
Abernathy said that the initial site plans allowed for only one entrance to the job site and the second entrance was considered unsafe.
“I’m legally not allowed to picket this other gate,” Abernathy said on Wednesday. “So I’m limited in our numbers. We’ve probably got only eight of us out here picketing today, but we’re limited to one gate. Zoning said that they were only going to have one approach to this job at one time. When the one was built, the other was supposed to be torn down, and that’s why I was pleading with the city, don’t make special arrangements for union busters.”
IBEW Local 8 is located at 807 Lime City Road and Abernathy said that they have approximately 1,900 members.
Attempts to contact Horvath Electric were not answered at time of publication.
