The Inquirer is reporting that work stoppages on major road projects around the area continue Tuesday after talks between the Contractors Association of Eastern Pennsylvania and four unions representing laborers, cement masons, carpenters and operating engineers ended without a contract settlement on Monday.

The unions’ contracts ended on April 30, but the workers continued to work under the terms of their old contracts until last Wednesday.

Last Thursday, after talks failed to produce a contract, the cement masons local, Local 592 of the Operative Plasterers and Cement Masons International Association, struck and picketed two or three major work sites, including the work on the South Street, Commodore Barry, Girard Point and Roosevelt Boulevard connector bridges, said Michael Fera, who leads the union.

The operating engineers union joined the masons and the other unions honored the picket lines.

At 8 p.m. that day, the Contractors Association of Eastern Pennsylvania asking its members to shut down all the job sites.

“Tomorrow your company could be hit with a strike just as others were hit today,” the association said in a notice posted on its website.

No talks were scheduled as of 12:30 Tuesday.

Construction trade unions do not negotiate with individual contractor employers. Instead, the contractors form association and negotiate a master contract that pertains to all the jobs.

On Friday, as the effects of the work stoppages were being felt, another contractors’ association, the General Building Contractors Association, reached tentative agreement with the same unions.

Those tentative agreements are now being converted into a memo of understanding, which will then lead to ratification votes.

The one-year tentative contract includes increases ranging from 65 cents to $1 per hour, depending on the trade. For the most part, these increases will not yield a boost in take-home pay, but will instead help fund pensions or health care.

The GBCA handles building projects such as hospital or office tower construction; the Contractors Association of Eastern Pennsylvania specialize in what is known as “heavy and highway” work.

In an announcement posted Monday, James R. Davis, general manager of the Contractors’ Association, said his group asked the unions to accept the same package, but, he said, they refused “because they insist our . . . contractors are in much better shape workwise than are the GBCA builders.”

Joseph Martosella, vice president of Driscoll Construction Co. and one of the main contractors, did not immediately return a call for comment. Nor did Davis and the heads of the other unions.

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer