IBEW pickets are Volunteers: Carpenters' Union "outsources" pickets

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/business/0904/01union.html
Look for non-union label on pickets

By PÃRALTE C. PAUL
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/01/04

Even labor unions are outsourcing.

For nearly two weeks, the Southeastern Carpenters Regional Council has been picketing in front of the State Bar of Georgia's downtown Atlanta headquarters.

But about half the picketers aren't carpenters — or union members. Instead, they answered an ad the union placed with the state Labor Department offering $8 an hour to wear a sandwich board and march back and forth in front of the Marietta Street building.

"I'm just helping out," said Shilo Henry as he and two dozen other picketers walked the line.

The union has hired 500 or so picketers in the last year because many members are too busy to march, said Steven Shelton, director of special projects for the carpenters' council. "Most of our members are working," he said.

Since the dispute isn't about a scarcity of jobs, but about wages and benefits, Shelton said he doesn't see a problem with hiring people to spread the carpenters' message, especially people who need work.

"Labor's making use of paid personnel to undertake the kind of work that was done by membership or volunteers in the past," said Les Hough, director of research at the Usery Center for the Workplace at Georgia State University.

In 1983, about 20 percent of American workers belonged to a union. Today, 13 percent ”roughly 16 million workers” are union members, according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor.

Some of the nation's largest unions, including the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Communications Workers of America, say they don't hire outside picketers.

"That's a new one on me," said Jim Spellane, a spokesman for IBEW, which represents more than 750,000 workers in the United States and Canada.

IBEW has at times reached out to retired union members, community groups and religious organizations to help picket, but they're all volunteers, Spellane said.

Stephen Hart of Lawrenceville, a carpenters' union member who has walked the Marietta Street picket line, says he doesn't mind the paid picketers.

"We can't be out there all the time," the 37-year-old drywall installer said. "From walking around with them, I'm sure there are some of them out there to collect a check, but some of them are inquiring about the progress that we're making, and after a while, they learn and understand what we're doing."