THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 12, 1994 TAG: 9411120182
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
Two local unions, claiming they're being asked to make unfair wage and benefits concessions, have joined forces in striking against Tidewater Construction Corp., a company working on some of the more high-profile construction projects in Hampton Roads.
It is unclear whether the 35 members of Local 147 Operating Engineers and the 26 members of Local 79 Pipefitters have the numbers to force Tidewater back to the negotiating table. The unions say Tidewater Construction has hired replacement workers at projects at Union Camp Paper Mill, Newport News Shipbuilding, the Monitor-Merrimac Bridge-Tunnel, the Virginia Marine Science Museum and other locations.
Ray Davenport, business manager with the Operating Engineers, said that at least two of the projects have been slowed due to the lack of skilled union workers. Tidewater says that there have been no delays and that it's plugging the gaps left by union workers.
``We are manning our projects and serving our clients,'' said Paul Rose, labor relations manager with Tidewater. ``We have been attempting to come to a resolution with these people for quite some time.''
Away from the picket lines, both the unions and the company are trying to pressure each other through legal sparring.
The Operating Engineers filed two complaints in the past month with the National Labor Relations Board. The union alleges that the company is refusing to negotiate, according to Willie Clark, regional director of the NLRB's Winston Salem, N.C., office.
The unions say they had a better relationship with Tidewater Construction before it was bought out by a London-based management company. Hanson Plc, a $15.6 billion multinational conglomerate, owns Tidewater.
``The company, I believe, is intent on breaking the union,'' Davenport said, ``and certainly this is a multibillion dollar company that is capable of doing so.''
For its part, the company unsuccessfully sought injunctions against the Operating Engineers in an attempt, the engineers say, to throttle picketing at Union Camp and Newport News Shipbuilding.
At issue are reductions in the company's pay and its contribution to health care benefits. The engineers say the company wants to cut wages by 10 percent to 40 percent for nearly all of its members. They say the company also wants to cut in half its contribution to health benefits.
Crane operators average an hourly wage of $15.67. Davenport said the company's final contract offer, if accepted, would mean hourly pay cuts between $1.97 and $4.87 for union members.
``I've got a group of people who work very hard for a living, and they're not overpaid,'' said Jerry Hufton, business agent for the pipefitters union.
Tidewater Construction says the union's wage reduction figures are inaccurate, though the company declined to be more specific. Rose said Tidewater has reviewed the wages paid by its competitors in the contracting business, and revised its pay scale. But he said the company is offering higher wages for certain jobs that are in demand.
``They are not recognizing the competitiveness of the situation,'' Rose said, ``and that's creating a noncompetitive situation for Tidewater.''
No further contract negotiations have been scheduled. ILLUSTRATION: Staff color photo by BILL TIERNAN
Several strikers picket Friday outside the Virginia Marine Science
Museum, where Tidewater Construction Corp. is working on a project.
The picketers say they are being asked to make unfair wage and
benefit concessions bt Tidewater Construction.
KEYWORDS: UNION STRIKE TIDEWATER CONSTRUCTION CORP.
by CNB