Carpenters union protests hiring at Tanger, medical site
John Garrett of Washington, a journeyman union carpenter, was among those protesting Tuesday at the entrance to Tanger Outlets on Racetrack Road in South Strabane Township.
Carpenters from the Greater Pennsylvania Regional Council of Carpenters protest Tuesday outside a building at Neighbor Health Center on Leonard Avenue in Washington. Their target was Harmony Medical Holdings, which has doctors in the building. From left are Jay Redshaw, Tim Chesleigh and Steve Schrecengost.
A statewide carpenters union hammered home a message Tuesday in two area locales.
The Greater Pennsylvania Regional Council of Carpenters had representatives at Washington Health System’s Neighbor Health Center, on the Washington-South Strabane Township line, and at Tanger Outlets in South Strabane. The union has 14,000 members in 60 of the commonwealth’s 67 counties.
Council representatives at each site, accompanied by a large sign, were protesting the hiring of contractors who, according to a news release, do “not meet area labor standards for all their carpenter craft workers, including fully paying for family health benefits and pension.”
Tuesday was the first day they appeared at those venues. Jay Redshaw, a council representative stationed at Neighbor Health Center, said the union will return Wednesday.
The union is targeting Harmony Medical Holdings LP and subcontractor Masco Interiors Inc. of Pittsburgh for work being done at the outpatient clinic being built at the Meadows Landing project off Route 19 south.
Washington Health System is a minority owner in this venture. It hired Graziano Construction Co. Inc. of Pittsburgh as the general contractor, and Graziano hired subcontractors for this project.
Dr. Howard Goldberg of Harmony Medical, who secured financing for this project, wasn’t happy about the Neighbor Health Center protest.
“I think I’m a little confused about where they were protesting and picketing,” he said via cellphone Tuesday afternoon. “We had a very open bid process, where union and nonunion (companies) were welcome to make bids.
“This is a big project with plenty of union subcontractors who have hired local people.”
GPRCC, which also had three people at Tanger, is protesting tenants at Tanger who, it said, “are hiring contractors who undermine local area labor standards.”
Redshaw said the statewide council’s purpose “is twofold: (get companies to) hire a contractor who pays area standards, and hopefully someone will see this and also hire a contractor who (does that).”
Redshaw, Tim Chesleigh and Steve Schecengost represented the council at Neighbor Health Center from mid-morning until 2 p.m. Tuesday.
“We monitor all jobs in a 60-county area,” Redshaw said. “We want what Pennsylvania and the federal government say is a prevailing wage for carpenters.”
Washington police were called to the protest there, but left.