NEWPORT BEACH : Firm Closes Early in Face of Protest

Blowing whistles and chanting “no contract, no peace,” about 150 carpenters disrupted business Wednesday at A.R. Willinger Co., which demonstrators said reneged on a promise to sign a labor agreement with the union.

For more than three hours starting at 10:30 a.m., members of Carpenters Local 803 and other locals chanted, jeered and stomped their feet inside a business complex at 240 Newport Center Drive. Their raucous protest forced the company, which constructs public buildings, such as schools, to close early.

Police said that despite the noise the rally was peaceful and reported no violence or arrests, although at one point they had to command protesters to stop banging on the office windows.

Baldwin Keenan, a business representative for the Southern California District Council of Carpenters, said the union has been working with company owner Al Willinger for the last two years, “and he said he would sign the agreement” that would provide union members jobs as well as health and welfare and other benefits. The promise remains unfulfilled, he said.

“We’ve got 35% to 40% unemployment” in the union, said protester Randy Thornhill. “A lot of guys are losing their houses, their health and welfare benefits. It’s brutal. They’re losing their cars; their marriages are breaking up.

“These guys are going to take their fight to the street. These guys, they need a job bad,” Thornhill said.

After the demonstrators left the area, Willinger said in an interview that his business never promised to sign a contract with the local carpenters’ union.

Willinger also denied protesters’ charges that his company refused to hire union carpenters so that it could hire non-union subcontractors at less than the “prevailing wage” required by law.

“All subcontractors must comply with the law, and that’s paying prevailing wage. We provide a certified payroll (and) we have never been cited for noncompliance. We never will be because we pay the lawful amount,” he said.

Willinger said the protest disrupted business and caused the firm to miss bidding on a school construction project worth about $6 million. Protesters also forced the business to close early in part because, Willinger said, “they bombarded our phones to tie up our lines and sent faxes of blank paper.”