Local union pickets for better health care benefits
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union 11, a union representing electrical workers in the Los Angeles area, increased its picketing efforts Monday on Jefferson Boulevard near the construction site of the new Roger and Michele Dedeaux Engemann Student Health Center in response to the USC administration’s decision to employ Bergelectric Corp for construction projects on campus.
Benefits · Members of IBEW Local Union 11 picketed against Bergelectric, an electric company often hired by the university. Union workers want better benefits. - Photo courtesy of Kevin Norton
IBEW Local Union 11 is accusing Bergelectric, a Los Angeles-based electric contracting company, of not meeting Los Angeles County’s worker health benefit standards.
The objective of the picketing is to convince USC to pressure Bergelectric into providing appropriate benefits for its workers, according to Kevin Norton, organizing director and political coordinator for IBEW Local 11.
“We [want] to have people out here making good wages and having proper benefits.” Norton said. “We want them to meet area standards like medical insurance for families, while not undermining our ability to have good construction.”
Norton said the union will continue to protest until Bergelectric changes its policies.
“[Bergelectric] aware of our feelings toward them, and until they meet standards, we are not going to stop protesting,” Norton said.
The university is uses Bergelectric for construction projects because of the competitiveness of the electrical company’s contract bid, according to Kristina Raspe, vice president for USC real estate development and asset management.
“Several IBEW-affiliated contractors submitted bids that were not as competitive as the non-union bidder, and as a result, the non-union electrical subcontract bidder, Bergelectric, won the contract,” Raspe said in an email. “USC continues to enjoy long-standing and strong relationships with the construction unions in the city, and looks forward to working with them extensively on future projects.”
While I find the lack of specific data in the article disappointing, I find it more disturbing that there appears to be an argument between what one user noted as “obvious Bergelectric employees” and what I’ll term as “obvious union supporters” with no supporting data. Why aren’t both sides providing the wage and benefit data they are debating? This debate will end quickly if we could just see the facts!
The bottom-line is when companies, like Bergelectric Corp, push down wages and do not offer healthcare benefits, we the taxpayers pay the price. We then have to subsidize a health care system for the thousands of Angelenos that do not have access to health care. USC is not a stand-alone institution. It is located in one of the neighborhoods that has been hardest hit by this recession. It is your responsibility, Ms. Raspe to ensure that USC not only has a good, quality construction project but that those people working on the project get paid fair wages and healthcare benefits.
Again, where is the evidence?????
Apparently what you fail to understand is Berg does provide healthcare benefits. Try and do a little research like possibly visiting their website? Or you could use the IBEW’s strategy and talk nonsense with no accountability.
It is disappointing Ms. Raspe did not specify why Bergelectric’s bid was more “competitive” than IBEW-affiliated contractors. Was it simply because the bid was lower? Typically those who get short-changed by these lower bids are workers, who are not properly paid the wages and benefits they deserve.
This is not the first time Bergelectric has been accused of not being a responsible contractor. USC should make sure that they are not getting “more bang for their buck” at the expense of workers’ safety and livelihood for future contracts.
I assume you’re also disappointed in the lack of specificity regarding the allegations made against Bergelectric? I’d be interested to know specifically what the IBEW wants to change at Bergelectric. Does Bergelectric have a poor safety record? Are they known for abusing workers?
Since IBEW seems to be tossing out accusations with no evidence why not I give it a shot!?
Maybe just maybe, the union contractors are losing their bids by the amount added to labor rates due to UNION DUES?! What added value does this add to the Owner? Apparently it helps pay for picketers and bad press for USC. Hardly what an Owner would be willing to shell out more money for.
This is not a union non-union issue. Companies like Bergelectric hire electricians from out of state who are willing to work for less than area standard wages. These workers send most of their money back home to places like Texas and Arizona.
Its sad that Berg electric doesnt pay the area standard wage and benefits. They are just like Wall Street and the large Corporations who take adavantage of the middle class and erode our way of life.
Shame on you Berg….
Shame on your for not doing your homework. Marc Greenfield is right. This isn’t a Union/Non-Union issue. It’s a fact / fiction issue. Let’s see the facts. Nowhere in any of these posts nor in the artcle itself does anyone identify how Bergelectric doesn’t pay the area standard in wages, benefits, etc. If it’s true, shouldn’t the facts speak for themselves? It would seem to me that a simple illustration of what the area standards are and how Bergelectric is below them is in order.
We do not argue that Bergelectric Corp. is a not good employer to some of their employees, upper management, superintendents, foreman and long term employees. We want Bergelectric Corp to be a good employer to all of their employees, on all projects they perform work on. Construction work has been a solid middle class job for decades and companies like Bergelectric Corp undermine the Area Standards that have been built up over the last one hundred years in the construction industry. We salute Kristy Pike for giving a more balanced story than the 5 obvious Bergelectric Corp. employees that commented anonymously have given her credit for.
I’m curious where I can find the data supporting the argument that companies like Bergelectric pay lower than the “Area Standards” and I’m even more curious why no one has been willing to show this imperically. I’m also wondering why “Area Standards” should mean anything in a capitalist economy. We’re not talking about worker abuse in the industrial revolution spawning unions to grant workers rights, we’re talking about employment. Why shouldn’t I have the right to work for a lower wage than someone in a union? Isn’t that my choice? Isn’t it my right as an American? The capitalist model is built on innovation, efficiency, and consumer choice. When we eliminate that choice and unions drive employment, we lose as Americans. Look at our auto industry as a harbinger of what’s to come in construction if we accept these arguments without facts.
Kevin, you are a typical union mudslinger ( I mean Politician ). You are not interested in anyone
but yourself. Or haven’t you noticed the only people playing the cry wolf game are union.
If you were a good leader you would whip your local into shape. Talk is cheap and so is the work i’ve seen from some of your members ( I mean electricians ). I to this day have not met a union
electrician that could do it all….and thats where you guys are lacking. bullies never win.
by the way nice try with the Certification Test. Whats next “having to prove that you own a pair or two of Carharts” even if, that is not the way you find out what someone knows. Not to mention with how looted your coffers are shouldn’t you be drumming up business instead of harrassing those who do?
Let me get this straight . . . so you want Berg a non-union shop to be a good employer to all of their employees? You do realize they are your competition?? In what parallel universe does a competitor want the other company to treat their employees better? In the real world you want them to treat them like crap! It’s called the free market. If Bergelectric treats their employees below standards as you so claim (and with no evidence) wouldn’t you be jumping all over the opportunity to lure away their best employees?! I mean if the grass is so much greener on the other side wouldn’t their employees be defecting in droves to join the union?!
From the article is seems like Bergelectric does not only have very competitive bids, but is able to deliver a quality results. Why else would the largest employer in LA (USC) be giving these guys so many projects?
Lets get real here guys. Anyone can toss false accusations without proof, but in the end those people end up looking infantile.
Hold on Kristy Pike wrote this article? I don’t really know what to tell you other than do some homework before making ill informed statements.
As an Alumnus of USC, loyal reader of the Daily Trojan and long-time employee of the Bergelectric Corporation, I was extremely disappointed and disheartened by the lack of journalistic balance and research in your article entitled “Local Union Pickets for Better Health Care Benefits”. Your article states several broad allegations by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) but does not include specifics of the allegations nor does the article include a response from Bergelectric. As a journalist, you have a responsibility to write for the community that you observe and provide balanced information to allow your readers to draw fair conclusions based on the facts you present. However, in this case, you have given a voice to once side of a debate while silencing another through inaction.
The IBEW has a long-standing tradition of promoting the rights of their workers and for that I commend them, but to state publicly that Bergelectric does not do the same, particularly in the arena of healthcare benefits, is both untrue and irresponsible. As a former field electrician of Bergelectric and now a manager, I can speak from personal experience that Bergelectric offers excellent benefits to employees, including healthcare and fair wages. Bergelectric’s benefits meet or exceed those provided by the IBEW to their workers. Further, Bergelectric offers these benefits with no hidden costs to the workers in stark contrast to the IBEW.
This is not an issue isolated to the USC Campus but rather an epidemic in Los Angeles County. The IBEW and associated groups consistently promote the institution of Project Labor Agreements (PLA’s) on public and private construction work predicated on the specious argument that non-union contractors do not offer comparable benefits to employees nor provide good wages. This is not only discriminatory to non-union workers, but it is damaging to tax payers and community.
Mr. Byron, you have a voice and a vehicle to communicate these facts to your community. I implore you to do so in a responsible, fair and balanced way.
Shame on the “Journalist” and Editorial staff for publishing this story without fully researching the claims made by the union. Did you ask the Bergelectric employees if the claims made by the IBEW are true? How about asking their HR department what their benefits are? Simple fact checking would be nice every once in awhile and would actually present a complete story, this isn’t TMZ. Also wouldn’t the picketers like to know that they are picketing for no reason other than to try and cause bad press for USC and Bergelectric?
Fight on Bergelectric!!! Thank you for providing us with quality projects at competitive prices so we can afford to make more and more improvements at our university. Labor unions should work on their own image instead of trying to pick a part a successful business model.
88% of the construction workers in the United States are non-union. They must be doing something right.
We are, and thank you for noticing. we don’t protect the the lazy or obese worker just because he calls me brother everyday. we exist on merit not mudslinging.
Unions have out lived their usefulness in protecting workers and become huge burdens costing the workers dues, productivity and jobs. Everyone would LOVE what the unions ask for, but it is not possible. Do you want to protest to get everything or live like the rest of the world and get what is possible? Well done USC for getting the right contractor to the job, not just the one that threats you.
The unions and Kevin can cry all they want. They like to play spin doctor like a defense attorney.
Don’t they know USC has a fine business school……………….. No???? oh well that explains it.