By Megan Stoker
Members of the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenter''s have brought their protest against Okland Construction company to BYU.
Bearing a large banner with the words 'Shame on Brigham Young University: Labor Dispute' inscribed on it, the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenter''s, or SRCC, are by the west entrance of campus, handing out flyers and trying to get drivers to honk in support.
University officials, however, are quick to point out that although the protest is in front of BYU the labor dispute, it is not against BYU itself.
Instead, the protest targets Okland Construction, a company used by BYU for the construction of several of its buildings.
'They''re not protesting against BYU,' said Carri Jenkins, BYU spokeswoman. ' This is a concern with Okland Construction.'
According to pamphlets handed out at the protest site, the members of the Carpenter''s Locals 184 and 194 are claim that Okland''s created a new labor union, the Utah Carpenter''s Association, which is unlawful, states the SRCC pamphlet.
' have unlawfully dominated or assisted a phony union going by the name of ''Utah Carpenter''s Association'' unlawfully coerced employees to sign up with or participate in that fraud,' the pamphlet states.
Okland officials, however, deny the allegations, stating that employees who no longer wished to be part of the Carpenter''s Union have legally formed the new union, Utah Carpenter''s Association.
'They''re protesting because our employees didn''t want to be part of their union anymore, so they created their own,' said John McEntire, secretary treasurer for Okland Construction. 'They think that management organized the union, but we didn''t.'
Location is one main reason workers formed the Utah Carpenter''s Association because they wanted to have a more localized chapter, stated the Deseret Morning News published on June 23. The SRCC is based in California.
'These people are mostly California or temp workers,' McEntire said. 'While our , except for a few, are locals.'
According to an article published in the Deseret Morning News on June 23, Okland Construction signed a three-year contract with the new, Utah Carpenter''s Association in April. This contract provides a journeyman carpenter a pay rate of $18.50 plus benefits. According to a survey conducted by the Leverich Group earlier this year that is significantly higher than the median pay rate of $12.75 -$16.00 an hour made by most concrete workers.
While the Carpenter''s Union protest material claims that the protest has been brought to BYU because, 'all businesses...have a social and civic obligation to monitor the kind of companies whose services or products they consume,' Okland construction officials say that BYU is just one of several protest attempts by the Union.
'They''ve protested other sites,' McEntire said. 'You bet.'
Okland Construction, a local construction company based in Salt Lake City, which has built both the Ezra Taft Benson science building and the new indoor football facility, is now working on the Joseph F. Smith humanities building which will be completed in December.