THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 15, 1996 TAG: 9605150427
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CAPE CHARLES LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
Boycott the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel?
If you live in Hampton Roads and want to get to the Eastern Shore, or vice versa, that may be impossible. But a group of Hampton Roads labor unions is asking summer tourists from the Northeast to avoid using the 17.6-mile crossing.
The union members are upset that they've been frozen out of working on the $197.2 million bridge that will parallel the 32-year-old bridge-tunnel.
They say that project, a joint venture led by PCL Civil Constructors Inc. of Denver, is providing paychecks to workers from as far as Florida and Canada, but not to workers in Hampton Roads.
``I'm wondering if the commission is aware that there is a skilled labor force right in the Tidewater area that would give their right arm to work on that bridge so they can tell their children and grandchildren they worked on it,'' said Leonard Hughes, regional director of the International Union of Operating Engineers.
Local workers did build the first span. Norfolk-based Tidewater Construction Corp. and Kiewit Construction Corp. of Omaha, Neb., joined to build the bridge-tunnel that opened in 1964 and was hailed as one of the ``Seven Wonders of the Modern World.''
This time, PCL underbid the Tidewater-Kiewit partnership by $3.8 million, and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel District Commission gave the job to PCL.
The unions announced the boycott at Tuesday's commission meeting. Chairman M. Lee Payne had little to say to the unions.
``What you are referring to is essentially an obligation of the contractor, not the commission,'' Payne said.
In April, more than 220,000 vehicles crossed the bridge-tunnel. The $10, one-way toll for cars to cross the bridge-tunnel is said to cut a trip from New York to Virginia Beach by 95 miles and an hour and a half.
Can the union boycott really make a dent in numbers like those?That might be tough, but here's their plan:
The International Union of Operating Engineers and the United Brotherhood of Carpenters will mail letters to their 100,000 members along the East Coast, Hughes said. Other unions, such as the Laborers' International Union, have pledged to do the same. The Virginia State Building and Construction Trades Council will also urge its brethren in the AFL-CIO to boycott.
They'll ask their members to take I-95 to I-64 if they're heading to Virginia Beach or south for summer vacation. Ray Davenport, business manager of Operating Engineers Local 147 in Norfolk, says 16,000 union members in Rochester, N.Y., and 10,000 in Pittsburgh have been urged to re-route their vacation plans by their union leaders.
Davenport wants to distribute literature to the PCL workers who, the unions say, are making substandard wages with poor benefits. The unions also want to buy billboard ads on the New Jersey Turnpike and on I-95 to urge vacationers to avoid the bridge-tunnel.
``With all the unemployment we have around here, they're bringing people from Florida and Canada,'' Hughes said. ``It's an insult.'' ILLUSTRATION: File photo
Union members are upset that they haven't been hired to work on the
$197.2 million bridge that will parallel the Chesapeake Bay
Bridge-Tunnel.
GRAPHIC
THE PROBLEM
For Hampton Roads residents going to the Eastern Shore, a change of
route may not be possible. Also, the bridge-tunnel is said to cut a
trip from New York to Virginia Beach by 95 miles and an hour and a
half.
THE UNION PLAN
The union strategy is to target summer tourists. They will mail
letters to their 100,000 members on the East Coast. Other unions
have pledged to so the same. AFL-CIO members also will ne asked to
boycott.
by CNB