Carpenters Join WTC Job Action

[TomClash]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903341404576484493275728206.html

Carpenters are refusing to work at a World Trade Center project and other sites in solidarity with cement laborers who have staged a work stoppage as they negotiate a new contract.

More than two-dozen carpenters have joined hundreds of cement workers in a job action at One World Trade Center that began Monday. The cement worker stoppage has slowed construction there and on the World Trade Center's new transit hub, both being built by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, according to people familiar with the matter.

<snip>

People familiar with the negotiations say the main dispute is about the contractors' demand that workers accept a 20% reduction in pay and benefits for residential work versus commercial work. Unions are fighting that demand.

<snip>

"Once they do one union with a 20% cut, they are going to do them all. It's not fair," said carpenter Nathaniel Soto.