Chicago Union News: With economy limping, some union tradesmen consider the once-unthinkable: taking non-union work

With economy limping, some union tradesmen consider the once-unthinkable: taking non-union work

(POSTED: 11/9/09) After nearly a year of unemployment, a Chicago-area member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 134 got a call for a job about two weeks ago.

But there was one problem -- the offer came from a non-union shop.

The Local 134 member, who spoke to a reporter on the condition that he was not identified, ended up taking the gig, even though it could get him in big trouble should the union ever find out.

"I'm using skills that the union taught me to do work outside of the union," the man told ChicagoUnionNews, adding that the union wouldn't touch the kind of work he's now doing: updating wiring in old houses and apartments.

Even so, he's not letting many people know about the job -- which pays $20 an hour, roughly half what he had been making. He also peeled off the IBEW sticker that had been on his truck window so no questions are raised at work.

"I'll take it because it's not like I have a thousand other offers knocking at the door," he said. "I'll take what can I get."

With good jobs scarce as the economy limps along, more and more union members appear to be facing a similar dilemma. As one labor expert puts it, they "are forced to put their union card in their back pocket."

That's if alternative work is available at all.

During the past year, the economic downturn has hit construction workers especially hard, with many building trade unions facing around 40 percent unemployment.

Out of work and strapped for money, some union workers are opting for non-union gigs to help make ends meet -- something Joe Berry, a visiting labor educational specialist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said has always been an issue. But, Berry added, the current conditions allow for more people to be facing that choice right now.

"Well, people don't like to have to do it, and it's frowned upon in the construction trade unions and there are rules against doing it, but when people have the choice between losing some assistance and facing not being able to keep their house or feed their families, then people are going to do what's necessary," he said.

Frank O'Lone, secretary-treasurer for the Chicago & Cook County Building & Construction Trades Council, said that while non-union work in terms of side jobs may be on the rise, jobs for non-union contractors are not any more available than union ones.

"If the union contractors during the recession do not have much work, neither do the non-union contractors," O'Lone said. "Non-union contractors routinely do work on a small scale, and since there is not a lot of small work out there, they are suffering the same."

Susan Moir, director of the Labor Resource Center at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, agrees and said there is just no work period, whether it's union or non-union.

"There is no jumping to non-union companies because there's no work there either. They are laying off their own people," she said. Moir added that unemployment for construction workers has "never been this widespread and never so deep across all sectors of the industry" since the 1930s.

At IBEW Local 9, approximately 300 of the 700 members are unemployed, the highest that President John Conroy has seen in his 33 years in the business. He said people come in on a daily basis to be added to the book for call-backs.

Given his local's line of work, which involves high voltage, there isn't much opportunity for non-union jobs, but Conroy recognizes how other workers may be dealing with the issue. "Do a lot of them have pains of conscience about it? Sure they do," he said. "They'll try to do union jobs, but a job is a job when times are tough, unfortunately."

Another Chicago-area tradesman, who was laid off in recent weeks, relayed to ChicagoUnionNews that he was told by his union it'd be a year before he'd get a call.

If he qualifies, the union will pay him $100 a week in addition to government aid, but with two kids and a home in the suburbs, the man said it's not something he can live off of. It's too soon for him to say, but if it got bad enough, he'd consider non-union work if it became available.

"If it comes down to that, I mean, I can't get kicked out of my house," he said. "It would be the last resort, but I wouldn't hesitate to do it. You just play the waiting game for awhile -- then your savings run out and you gotta do what you gotta do, meaning if you have to work a non-union job, then you'll work non-union."

By Katie Drews, for ChicagoUnionNews
Contact: info@chicagounionnews.com

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