The Indiana Kentucky Regional Council of Carpenters, which represents Locals 599, 1005, 1406 and 1485, has coordinated the demonstration, complete with a giant inflatable rat, according to organizer Glen Fingar. The council is located in Hobart. "This has to do with the wages and economic conditions paid to workers on the job," Fingar said.
Fingar said the minimum prevailing wage for union carpenters is $19.21 an hour, with $9.26 in benefits.
He said the contractor used for the carpentry work, J.A. Bonilla Inc.
of Indianapolis is paying $18.89 per hour plus $1.93 in benefits.
Union carpenters were used at the union rate for the first phase of the project, two multi-family apartment dwellings, Fingar said. The union's gripe is with the second phase of the project, which entails the construction of five more apartment buildings. Fingar said it is unclear how the lower wage rate was approved.
He said there is no listing for a carpenter's pay in Lake County on the Indiana Department of Labor Web site. The rate being paid to workers in the second phase is that for the lowest listed skilled trade, which is plumber. "If this phase is all union scale, why are wages not the same as those paid in the first phase," Fingar asked.
A listing for J.A. Bonilla Inc.
in Indianapolis was disconnected. Anthony Siegmund, project manager for general contractor L.I Combs and Sons of Porter declined to comment.
Fingar said construction of each building is expected to take 4,000 man-hours for the carpentry. The approximate $7 an hour difference in pay and benefits translates to $140,000. "We've been here since Monday," Fingar said.
"We want to let the public know these workers aren't receiving what we consider the area standards for wages and benefits." That's just fine with John Mosca of Highland. Mosca walked the line with his fellow carpenters.
"That's my work right there that they are doing," Mosca said. He said the lower pay scale is unfair to the local union carpenters who were priced out of the job, and it is unfair to the non-union workers who are making below-scale wages.
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