HOLLAND (WHTC-AM/FM) — Anybody driving along Eighth Street, just west of U.S. 31, can’t help but noticed the signs, a small cluster of men and an inflatable figure, depicting a cigar-chomping fat cat holding a bag of money.
The signs seem to contradict one another. “Stand with All State employees. Fight for area standard wages and benefits,” one states; another compares collective bargaining to “collective bullying” and says the union represented by the men on the sidewalk, Operating Engineers 324, is not welcome.
There’s a union action intermittently going on in front of All-State Crane and Rigging, 500 E. Eighth St. in Holland. It’s not a strike. Members of Operating Engineers 324 Michigan, which has 14,000 members, have been demonstrating in front of the company, which has 27 employees. Justin Koert, one of All-State’s co-owners, told WHTC his 27 employees do not want to unionize. Union spokesman Dan McKernan says an employee contacted the Operating Engineers to get a union started.
Both sides have called the police to mediate disagreements about where the protesters can stand and what areas of the parking lot they can use. Overall, the people involved are behaving peacefully.
“It is a federally protected right for workers to be able to collectively bargain, and to decide whether or not they want a union,” McKernan said.
Kevin Burnham, an estimator with Construction Specialties Inc. (CSI) says his employer is stuck in the middle. CSI subcontracts work to All-State for construction projects.
Burnham doesn’t want the demonstrators at any of his company’s job sites, but they have been. He calls it harassment.
CSI has “40 to 60 field representatives,” Burnham said.
The union sent CSI a letter stating people would demonstrate at sites where All-State was present, during business hours and on public space.
