Nine Drywall Workers Held as Trespassers : Labor: Protest spreads into county as craftsmen, many of them immigrants from Mexico, say they are exploited.

A labor dispute involving drywall workers that began in Orange County two weeks ago spilled into San Diego County on Thursday when nine workers were arrested as trespassers in a protest at a construction site.

The men, all from the San Diego area, were among close to 100 unemployed drywall workers who picketed at a condominium construction site in Rancho San Diego, near Fury Lane and Jamacha Road, authorities said.

The nine workers were charged with trespassing by sheriff’s deputies and were taken to jail, deputies said. They were being held in lieu of $250 bail each, according to drywall worker spokesman Antonio Hernandez.

The protest Thursday showed the expanding strength of a grass-roots movement by a close-knit group of drywall workers that began July 2 in Orange County, where several generations of the workers have migrated from villages in the Mexican states of Guanajuato, Jalisco and Michoacan.

The striking workers are demanding better pay and union representation. They say that wages and working conditions have worsened dramatically in the construction industry since contractors broke up drywall unions 10 years ago, replacing union employees with lower-paid, recently arrived Mexican immigrants.

“There have been many times when the contractors just don’t bother to pay us after the job is done,” Hernandez said. “We’ve filed numerous complaints, but it takes as long as six years for complaints to be heard.”

In Orange County, the labor dispute gained widespread attention when 153 striking workers were arrested by sheriff’s deputies after entering a construction site and allegedly forcing six non-striking construction workers to leave.

About 25 of those arrested picketers were deported to Mexico after they were turned over to the Immigration and Naturalization Service and found to be illegal immigrants.

Undaunted, about 100 of the other striking workers have pressed their protest campaign by refusing to plea bargain or to waive their rights to a speedy trial. They have demanded to go to trial, creating a scheduling nightmare in the Orange County courts.

Hernandez, who has also been involved in the Orange County dispute, said the workers are frequently victimized by unscrupulous contractors who exploit the fact that many of the workers are immigrants.

Drywall workers in San Diego County have been working without a union contract for the past 10 years, Hernandez said, and earn less today than they did in 1979. He said most workers put in about 60 hours a week at job sites, but the average wage is only $300 per week.

Thursday’s arrests occurred about 1:30 p.m. during a protest that San Diego County sheriff’s deputies described as occasionally loud but peaceful.

Dozens of fellow picketers demanded to be arrested in a show of solidarity with the nine arrested men, but they dispersed after discussions with deputies and organizers of the protest, deputies said.

A Sheriff’s Department spokesman said deputies recognize the right to free speech and to protest, but that trespassing will not be tolerated.