Community Corner

Labor Protest Continues Along South Tacoma Way Just Outside Lakewood

The Pacific NW Regional Council of Carpenters believes Larson Automotive Group is not meeting area labor standards on its projects.

About 10 protesters along South Tacoma Way between 72nd and 80th — just outside Lakewood city limits — held several banners on Friday calling out Larson Automotive Group and Marquise Drywall, a subcontractor for SD Deacon Construction on Larson's construction projects.

The protesters claim the businesses don't meet labor standards on their projects, including providing or fully paying for family health care and pension, for all their carpenter craft employees on all of their jobs.

The Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters has had a labor dispute with Larson for about two weeks, according to protesters who didn't want their names used. They have been protesting five days a week, six hours a day and plan to continue until their representatives tell them to stop.

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Rob Nolan, Larson Automotive’s chief financial officer, said in an e-mail Friday that the protest over its choice of a nonunion drywall subcontractor is related to a dispute that started in fall 2009. The carpenters union picketed Larson dealerships then because one of the general contractors bidding to remodel several of its dealerships had used nonunion drywallers on other work. The two sides talked, and the picketers left and Larson chose a different general contractor.

The same thing happened last fall when the Group put plans out to bid for new dealerships in Fife, Nolan said. But the picketing expanded, including fliers handed out at the Seattle Auto Show “condemning the Larson Automotive Group for ‘possibly’ choosing a GC that had used nonunion drywallers,” Nolan said. When it couldn’t reach union leaders, Larson asked each of the general contractors who was bidding to contact the union and tell it the picketing was unfair.

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“They refused to halt the picketing, therefore we chose a nonunion drywall subcontractor,” Nolan said.

He added that the group doesn’t have a grudge with unions in general, and there will be “many union workers on our jobs.” He added that the picketers currently protesting are not union members but were hired by the union for the protest.

A call to the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters on Friday wasn't returned.

Larson Automotive operates a number of dealerships in Pierce County, including several along South Tacoma Way.


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