[Roamer]

We are a non-union company. Our experience with the local union has been negative. The local here Salted us. Not fricken cool. This is fair business practices?

We've also done work up in Philly. Philly is a union town from top to bottom. We were asked to bid on a mens' club in downtown Philadelphia almost within site of City Hall. We asked a local union contractor to bid the work for us and we would then use him as a sub. The job entailed preparing and painting about 30 pairs of shutters. Our local guy refused to bid on the work because it entailed 'carpentry'!?! The carpentry for him was the removal and re-installation of the shutters. As a member of the painter's union he was forbidden from doing any carpentry. In fact, he was also forbidden from doing any sheet rock replacement, hanging lights and any of the many things that we did as a matter of course in our normal work day.

I asked him what sort of trouble could we expect from the union if we tried to do this job ourselves. He said that we would likely be visited by OSHA everyday. I don't know how anything gets built in Philly when your need 8 or so different unions to perform the work.

 

[Roamer]

We've subbed numerous commercial jobs to this local union contractor. Our relationship has always been amicable and profitable for both.

Funny that, in this instance, a business in Philadelphia would seek a painting bid from a contractor from Virginia. I can only assume that their experiences with local union contractors has been less than satisfactory.