Interest low for DNC legal aid

Listen to this article

While Charlotte boosters are on cloud nine about the 2012 Democratic National Convention, some contractors haven’t been as blissful, complaining that they’ll be passed over in favor of union labor.

So, last year, Springfield, Va.-based National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation said it would provide free legal aid to nonunion workers kept away from DNC jobs.

But, so far, demand for the aid is low.

“We haven’t really received anything of substance yet,” Anthony Riedel, spokesman for the foundation, said last week.

The nonprofit foundation on its website calls itself a charitable organization that gives free legal assistance to employees “whose human or civil rights have been violated by abuses of compulsory unionism.”

The foundation said the legal aid is for nonunion workers who might lose their jobs and be replaced by unionized ones during the convention. The aid is also for nonunion workers who might be prevented from working during the DNC.

The use of union labor for DNC projects has been a controversial topic in Charlotte, where union labor is hard to find; according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, North Carolina had the lowest union membership rate, 3.2 percent, in 2010.

“Despite Democratic officials’ rhetoric about jobs, it appears they plan to force workers off the job to appease their big labor benefactors,” Mark Mix, president of the foundation, said in a press release. “Not only is this outrageous, it is illegal.”

In the Charlotte-area, some minority contractors said they’ve shied away from bidding on DNC contracts because of concerns about having to enter into agreements with unions for their share of the $7 million in work.

Stephane Berwald, president of the Metrolina Minority Contractors Association, a Charlotte-based construction trade association, said last year that some members of the MMCA have been concerned about how DNC officials will enforce the idea of promoting union-led work.

Charlotte-based construction company Rodgers, a woman-owned business, won the construction-management contract for the convention with partner Indianapolis-based Hunt Construction Group, which says it has used union labor in past projects, and Atlanta-based H.J. Russell and Co., a minority-owned businesses.

The construction manager will oversee the overhaul and then the restoration of Time Warner Cable Arena for the convention. The construction manager will also manage subcontractors and the architect for the event.

According to the DNC 2012 “master agreement” union labor
is certainly preferred, if not
mandated, in Section 17, which deals with union labor.

When a request for qualifications was released by the DNC, it mentioned the DNC’s desire for women- and minority-owned companies and union-affiliated Charlotte firms to benefit from the convention contracts.

Riedel said the lack of interest in the free legal aid might be
because a large portion of the
construction work for the DNC has not begun.

RAMSEY can be reached at [email protected].