Library: Union Protest Result of ‘Misunderstanding’

Union workers picketed Tuesday in front of the ’s Lockport branch, 121 E. 8th St., saying the company chosen to conduct asbestos removal at the site does not pay its workers a prevailing wage.

“The company that’s working in here is not paying its men a prevailing wage,” Laborers’ Local 225 rep Séan Ryan said. “This is tax money that’s paying for this. That’s what we’re fighting for.”

Library Director Scott Pointon said he believed the demonstration is the result of a misunderstanding between the district and the union.

Earlier this month, the library district received a bid protest from the Laborers’ District Council Labor-Management Cooperative Committee (LDC-LMCC). Signed by Executive Director Michael Kleinik, the letter objected to the use of low bidder DEM Services, saying the company did not meet minimum bidding requirements because it does not offer a union asbestos removal apprenticeship program.

But Pointon said there is no such thing.

“There is not an apprenticeship program for asbestos abatement because that is a highly regulated health concern that the state [Environmental Protection Agency] has control over,” Pointon said via email.

He said shortly after speaking with Kleinik on Feb. 21, he received a second letter from LDC-LMCC withdrawing the bid protest.

“I called up the gentleman who sent the letter and asked if there was such a thing as an apprenticeship program for union asbestos abatement workers,” Pointon said.  “He replied that in Will County asbestos abatement is listed under the prevailing wage law.”

Pointon said the library district abides by all prevailing wage requirements, adding that after he pressed Kleinik regarding the apprenticeship issue, the union sent a second letter withdrawing the protest.

But union picketers showed up Tuesday in front of the library, which is undergoing extensive renovations.

Holding signs reading “DEM does not have a contract with Laborers’ Local 225,” union demonstrators said they plan to picket as long as the asbestos work continues, possibly through the weekend.

“I feel that this whole thing is a bit of a misunderstanding,” Pointon said. “It is my belief that just because a union laborer performs a task, that does not automatically make performing that task a union trade. We have to be good stewards of the public dollar, and we have been.”

Pointon said the district continues to use union workers for all three of its library projects. Currently, the at the Romeoville branch, while are in the works. During renovations at the Lockport facility, the branch has moved into a temporary location at the nearby Gaylord Building, 200 W. 8th St.

“Over the course of these three construction/renovation projects, we are using nothing but union craftsmen (plumbers, carpenters, electricians, etc.) because those are union trades and they qualify to be governed by our responsible bidder ordinance,” Pointon said in his email.

Kleinik did not immediately respond to a message from Patch seeking comment.