Electric Workers At School Strike
Published: Mar 24, 2006
PORT RICHEY - More than a dozen electrical workers went on strike at a school construction site this week, citing safety concerns as the reason they walked off the job.
The workers, employees of Tampa-based Energy Electric, began their work stoppage Tuesday and were in the third day of their strike Thursday.
They complained of dangerous conditions. Construction materials, such as concrete blocks, were dropped from roofs, they said, and cranes swung steel beams above their heads while they worked at the Gulf Highlands Elementary construction site.
Among other concerns, they said dusty conditions and the grinding of concrete in a two-story classroom building led to breathing problems.
"The dust was so bad it would fill your ears up," said Michael Salvi, the electrical foreman, who is among striking workers.
Charles R. Sanford, owner of Energy Electric, a subcontractor on the construction job, disputed the workers' contention that the site is unsafe. He said the workers' real goal is a pay increase.
"The job has been going on for four months," Sanford said. "If it's unsafe, there would have been accidents. There haven't been."
He said the strike won't delay the construction work because he has shifted some of his electricians from other jobs to the school site, which is south of State Road 52 and west of La Madera Boulevard.
Gulf Highlands Elementary is one of six new public schools under construction in Pasco County. The school is set to open to students Aug. 8. Teachers will report a week earlier.
A strike at a Pasco school construction site is unusual, said John Petrashek, the school district's director of new construction.
"It's an anomaly," he said. "It's the first time anything like this has happened to us."
He said the district views the situation as a pay dispute between the subcontractor and his workers.
"It's really a nonissue for the schools," Petrashek said. "They aren't contractually obligated to us or us to them."
The school district's contract is with the construction manager on the project, Cutler Associates Inc. of Tampa, which hires the subcontractors.
Sanford said he was unaware of any safety complaints until someone from Cutler called him Tuesday and said his employees had walked off the job.
"We were blindsided by what was going on there," he said.
Salvi, though, said complaints about safety were made to both Energy Electric and Cutler before the workers decided to strike.
"We brought these issues up to them before," Salvi said. "We were told it would be taken care of."
Salvi said Sanford is trying to make the situation seem like a pay issue when it isn't. He said the workers would like to be paid more, but pay wasn't what prompted the walkout.
"It didn't come down to money," he said.
Salvi also expressed doubts that Energy Electric had enough workers available to bring from other work sites to continue the job at Gulf Highlands.
The striking employees have enlisted the assistance of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
Jon Dehmel, an assistant business manager and organizer with the union, said the IBEW hopes to help resolve the issue, though Sanford said he has no interest in dealing with the union.
Dehmel said he hasn't worked at the site, so he can't say for sure what the conditions are. But he said safety is a problem on construction sites throughout the state because companies try to fast track the work.
"It's not going to change until more people like this say, 'I'm not doing it,'" Dehmel said. "It's dangerous enough to do electric work without doing it quickly."
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