Construction union won’t
support local carpenters strike

By Peter Wagner
Star-Bulletin

Ironworkers, masons, and other members of the 20,000-strong Hawaii Building and Construction Trades Council gathered at the nearly finished Hawaii Convention Center this morning to say they won't take part in a possible strike by local carpenters.

The Hawaii Carpenters Union, currently negotiating for a five-year contract with the General Contractors Labor Association and the Building Industry Labor Association, has threatened a "strategic strike" against some contractors if agreement isn't reached by Tuesday. The union's contract with the two associations expires Sunday.

The carpenters want construction companies belonging to the two associations to stop farming out work to non-union subcontractors, and to end the importation of pre-fabricated materials.

Carpenters Union spokesman Walter Kupau has said the pre-fabricated material, done by "scab shops" on the mainland, is costing 20 percent of union jobs in Hawaii. More than half of the union's 6,800 members are unemployed because of Hawaii's slow economy and sluggish construction industry.

But while Kupau says the key issue is job protection for his 6,800-member union, other unions believe he is trying to claim more work for carpenters at the expense of masons, laborers, ironworkers, and other tradesmen.

Antonio Saguibo Jr., representative of the Laborer's International of North America Local 368, said today the trades council would support the carpenters if bargaining had to do with wages or benefits. "They are proposing language that would encompass work of the other trades," he said. "If the tradesmen honored their picket line, they would simply be inviting the carpenters to take the work from them."

Kupau was in talks and could not be reached for comment.

Saguibo said some conflicts arose during construction of the convention center, including fencing, ironwork, and other jobs.