Four-Year Pact Ends Bricklayers’ Strike

 At 5 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon, July 20, contractor and labor representatives signed the agreement that ended the 50-day bricklayers' strike in St. Louis.

"Neither side got everything they asked for, but we have reached a reasonable compromise," Dave Gillick, executive director, the Mason Contractors Association of St. Louis, said in a statement released to news organizations.

Gillick said the agreement was good for masonry contractors, because it removes "antiquated work rules" that reduced productivity.

Don Brown, business manager, Bricklayers Local 1, said the agreement was good for bricklayers, because it maintains the eight-hour day and safe working conditions, and includes a "reasonable wage increase."

"We were finally able to come to terms with both sides compromising on their issues," Brown said.

The five highlights for union members, he said, are:

• A $3.40 an hour increase over four years in the economic package: 55 cents an hour immediately, 85 cents in the second year, $1 in the third year and a dollar in the fourth year;

• Maintaining the right of the union executive committee to determine how the economic package would be split between wages and benefits;

• Maintaining the 8-hour day, 40-hour work week with overtime after eight hours on any given day;

• Maintaining the 30-pound weight limit on any block that one man would lift, which was a key safety issue for the union;

• Maintaining a $2 an hour payment into the union's vacation fund.

The highlights for masonry contractors, according to both Brown and Gillick, are:

• Bricklayers may now work a makeup day on Saturday. That is specifically to makeup for work lost to bad weather, Brown said, and will come with a $5 an hour premium in commercial construction and a $2.50 premium in residential construction.

"This will help us deliver projects on time and allows bricklayers to pick up the 250 hours needed in a quarter to qualify for health care benefits and the 1200 hours needed in a year to earn a pension credit," Gillick said.

• Contractors are relieved from having to make any additional contributions to the pension plan if it is deemed underfunded under current or future federal regulations. The economic package is set and any future underfunding liability will be made up by union members.

• There will be no restrictions on using corner poles as a construction guide for laying a line of brick instead of first building the traditional brick corner as the laying guide. Gillick said this will boost productivity.

• The union will select one of the existing employees on a specific job site to act as union steward, regardless of the size of the project, instead of sending out someone new to be the steward.

Brown praised the Federal Mediation Service and PRIDE Executive Director Jim LaMantia for bringing the two sides together.

With the federal mediator due to be out of town after hosting several days of meetings between the two sides, LaMantia offered to host more meetings to keep the negotiations moving. Publicly, the dispute seemed to be becoming increasingly bitter, with the contractors' association releasing a statement that they had to hire temporary workers - strike breakers - to survive, and the local AFL-CIO saying that contractors were trying to bust up the union, but negotiators for the two sides met for 17 hours on Friday, July 15. Then they met again for 14 hours the following Tuesday to wrap up the agreement. After the lawyers reached common ground on the legal language, the agreement was signed on Wednesday.

"Jim [LaMantia] stayed around and he was a big help," Brown said.

"We're happy with the deal and looking forward to working together under this new agreement to win back market share and continue to demonstrate that masonry walls are the best value in the construction industry," Gillick said.

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