Drywall Contractors in S.D. Face Lawsuit : Labor: L.A. attorney schedules trip in attempt to force compliance with contract governing the rest of Southern California.

A Los Angeles attorney representing striking drywallers said Wednesday that he will travel to San Diego next week to sue local drywall contractors to force them to accept a labor agreement reached last week between workers and contractors throughout Southern California except San Diego County.

Mark Steve, president of El Cajon-based High Performance Drywall Inc., promised that the 24-member San Diego Drywall Contractors’ Assn. will fight labor attorney Robert Cantore’s “threat to shove a union down our throats.”

“You can tell Cantore to go ahead and bring his . . . down here,” said a defiant Steve. “The association will spend every cent we’ve got to fight them. They can’t come down here and force a union down our throats or force us into a labor agreement. They’re going to have a long battle here.”

Cantore said he is up to the challenge.

“I hope there are a couple of companies out there who think I’m bluffing. I hope to nail some of these companies and take away the guys’ cars, homes and anything they may have. They won’t have to wait long. I’ll be down there next week, filing lawsuits in federal court,” Cantore said.

The bitter exchange is the latest turn in an acrimonious labor dispute that began last June, when about 4,000 drywallers walked off their jobs throughout Southern California to protest low wages and lack of health benefits.

When the new labor agreement was reached last week--the first between drywallers and contractors in 10 years--the number of strikers had dwindled to about 1,500, said Cantore. Most strikers had found jobs in other industries during the strike, he added.

According to Cantore, the new contract provides for wages between $300 and $500 for a 40-hour work week. In addition, the workers will be covered by health insurance funded equally by both employee and employer.

Before the strike, drywallers were working as many as 70 hours a week, including Saturday and Sunday, for the same wages and with no overtime pay, said Cantore.

During the strike, Cantore sued 18 drywall contractors, including three in San Diego County, accusing them of violating federal labor laws and failing to pay workers for overtime. Cantore said he will go to U.S. District Court in Orange and Los Angeles counties Monday to dismiss the lawsuits against 15 of the companies.

The lawsuits against local contractors D. J. Drywall, J. Sayatovich Drywall Interiors and Great Western Drywall will not be pulled, Cantore said.

“They will be joined by an additional 21 contractors as defendants next week,” he said.

The 24 local contractors, which he said control about 99% of the market in San Diego County, refused to sign the agreement. Cantore said about 200 drywallers are still on strike in the county.

The 5-month-old strike ended in other parts of Southern California when 41 drywall contractors in Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties initialed the agreement last week, Cantore said.

Steve called the new contract “weak and bad for the workers.”

“The contract contains an agreement that allows contractors to reduce workers’ wages if they lose a certain percentage of the market. . . . This contract is just a temporary fix. The workers are going to end up getting the bad end of the deal,” he said.

However, Antonio Hernandez, spokesman for striking drywallers in San Diego County, said the new contract “is a great victory for the workers.”

“The bottom line is that our people will now be able to go back to work with dignity and decent wages. Eventually, we will also triumph here in San Diego. It’s just a matter of time,” Hernandez said.