Some Drywall Subcontractors OK Union Talk

After a summer of picketing, vandalism and lawsuits, drywall workers won a big victory Thursday when some of Southern California’s largest drywall subcontractors agreed to negotiate with a union to settle their four-month strike.

The subcontractors, who met Thursday, issued a terse, one-sentence statement saying that “a number” of them had agreed to talk to the Carpenters Union about representing Southern California’s 4,000 drywall workers. That makes the organizing drive the biggest in the nation, union officials said.

It is also one of the most unusual: The men, most of them immigrants from rural Mexico, said they organized the strike themselves. Many of the leaders are from a single village in central Mexico--El Maguey--and are related, which accounts for much of their solidarity.

Drywall workers hang the broad sheets of plasterboard that form the inner walls of buildings.

The strikers were jubilant Thursday, though both sides said there are many obstacles to a quick settlement.

“This is at least a little something, a beginning,” said Jesus Gomez, a spokesman for the strikers. “It lifts my spirits.”

Amin David, president of Los Amigos of Orange County, a Latino group that has supported the striking drywall workers, was also jubilant upon hearing the announcement.

“This is a crack, a hope for the future,” said David, whose organization donated 15,000 pounds of rice and beans to the striking workers a month ago. “Finally, there is progress in the struggle to bring justice and social equality to these workers.”

“Their determination and sacrifice had no precedent. They’ve been stalwarts in standing for their rights. It’s an example for all of us,” he added.

The workers want their first raise in 10 years and benefits such as health insurance. They have no benefits now.

The strikers surprised the subcontractors--and some of their own members--by holding out through the summer. Donations of food and money from Latinos, activist groups and unions kept alive the strike, which began June 1.

In August, the workers began employing an effective new tactic: accusing their employers of not paying overtime and suing them in federal court for hundreds of thousands of dollars in back wages. Fear of huge legal fees and the possibility they might have to open their books finally drove the subcontractors to negotiate, people on both sides said.

Both sides emphasized that even getting to the bargaining table could take weeks. “This is still a preliminary thing,” one drywall subcontractor said. “It’s the dancing before the kissing.”

It was clear from the subcontractors’ statement Thursday afternoon that not all of them want to recognize a union, although one subcontractor said a “significant number” favor at least talking to the union about settling the strike.

The trade group that held the meeting, the Pacific Rim Drywall Assn., represents two dozen of the largest drywall subcontractors in Southern California. There are dozens of smaller companies in the industry, some of whom attended Thursday’s meeting at an undisclosed location.

The statement said: “At a meeting of the Pacific Rim Drywall Assn. held today, a number of drywall contractor members agreed to form a group within the . . . association to attempt to negotiate a resolution of all aspects of the labor dispute in the Southern California drywall industry.”

The group refused to comment further.

A settlement could still be scuttled if the subcontractors cannot persuade at least the largest companies to sign a union contract. They fear that competitors who remain non-union would be able to underbid them on jobs.

The Carpenters Union once represented drywall workers in the Southland’s huge home-building industry. At that time, most of the workers were Anglo. But during the 1982 recession, the industry used Mexican immigrants to bust the union.

Since then, wages have not risen above 1982’s average of $400 to $500 a week, and benefits disappeared. When the recession began in 1990, wages were reduced to about $300 a week. That pay cut--and what workers say is rampant cheating by employers--eventually touched off the strike.

The workers want 8 cents for each square foot of drywall they hang, which amounts to about $600 a week before taxes for a relatively skilled, industrious worker. After their pay was cut, workers made as little as 4 to 5 cents per square foot.

But once the strike began, some subcontractors paid as much as 9 cents per square foot--or $700 a week--to induce workers to cross the picket lines.

The subcontractors are almost certain to ask the workers to drop the 34 lawsuits that have been filed so far demanding back pay.

Nevertheless, a settlement seems far more likely now than it did even a month ago. And if the workers get their union, there could be repercussions beyond the drywall industry.

It might persuade the Carpenters Union and other unions to consider organizing building trades that remain largely non-union. Among those are the workers who erect the frames of houses.

And it would be strong evidence that Mexican immigrants--a growing chunk of Southern California’s labor force--may be ripe for union recruiting.

Staff writer Davan Maharaj contributed to this story.