A picket line targeted the construction work on US-131 in Three Rivers Wednesday. The picket was part of an ongoing dispute with a company involved in the work. 

Recently, members and representatives of the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 324 have been picketing construction sites wherever Rieth-Riley Construction of Goshen, Indiana is performing work. According to a press release issued by Local 324 on July 22, its members have resumed picketing as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted. 

Local 324 covers the entire state and represents workers who operate heavy construction equipment for a variety of companies. According to the local’s Communications Director, Dan McKernan, the situation leading to Wednesday’s picketing dates back to September 2018. At that time, Rieth-Riley was among a group of companies that locked workers out amidst new union contract negotiations.

According to McKiernan, the lockout was meant to illegally force workers to accept a contract. Although the previous contract had expired, its terms remained in effect pending negotiation of a new one. In a June 22, 2020 press release, McKernan said the lockout “stalled construction projects across Michigan. Workers who traveled to worksites with company vehicles were stranded at locations throughout Michigan, sometimes hundreds of miles from home.”

The lockout, which lasted just under one month, prompted the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and then-Gov. Rick Snyder to intervene.  McKernan said all of the companies involved except Rieth-Riley negotiated a new contract, and their employees returned to work. 

Rieth-Riley’s union employees remained without a contract into 2019, and the union called a strike in July. 

In a July 31, 2019 union press release, Local 324 Business Manager Douglas Stockwell said, “Our workers have negotiated in good faith and the (NLRB) has offered Reith-Riley a settlement to avoid a trial over unfair labor practice charges. Through it all, Rieth-Riley has refused to act in the best interests of its employees, and in light of the hardships Reith-Riley has placed on our workers and their families, we are left with no other recourse than a strike to protect our hardworking men and women.” An October 24, 2019 BridgeMI article called the strike vote “near-unanimous.”

Local 324 also alleged unfair labor practices against the company, filing a formal complaint with NLRB on August 28, 2019. According to an October 11, 2019 article in the Petoskey News, the union alleges the company denied workers $1.8 million in back pay due to the illegal walkout, denied worker unemployment claims, created an environment of intimidation, punished workers who spoke out, and docked wages as the 2019 construction season began. The latter charge, it alleges, was “a bait-and-switch by the company to take back monies the workers earned in 2018,” and would be an NLRB violation.

McKernan said the NLRB charges have gone to trial, but the trial hasn’t been resolved yet. “We’re just out there picketing, we’re still trying to compel the company to do the right thing and resolve the unfair labor practices,” McKernan said, “we’re still trying to compel the company to do right by these workers.”

The strike is also still ongoing. Some employees have been able to move on and work for other companies through the union. “I’d say most, if given the opportunity, would prefer to work for a company that is closer geographically or does their kind of work, they’ve just been troopers, but certainly some would come back. They’re still considered Rieth-Riley employees by (contract) law,” McKernan said.

Earlier this year, a Rieth-Riley employee, Rayalan Kent, petitioned the NLRB to allow a vote among fellow employees to cease IUOE representation on grounds that the union’s NLRB charges had failed to produce results, and that the strike had failed to produce a contract. 

The employee received assistance from the National Right-to-Work Legal Defense Foundation (NRWLDF), according to an April 22 news item on its website. NRWLDF said Kent “recounts in his request for review that he and more than 30 percent of his fellow employees first tried to exercise their right to vote out IUOE Local 324 in March, when they submitted their petition for such a vote to NLRB Region 7.” The NLRB subsequently told Kent an election would be delayed pending investigation of Local 324’s unfair labor practice charges. 

A change in NLRB rules due to take effect this coming August could influence the handling of that petition. Under existing rules, a union can submit something called blocking charges to keep itself from being voted out. The new rules will permit anti-union petitioners to call a vote despite blocking charges.

Meanwhile, although the strike has apparently slowed its work down, Rieth-Riley continues to execute construction projects around the state. McKernan told Watershed Voice there was initially a work stoppage. “Rieth-Riley shut down a lot of projects down last year, and what they’ve done since then is either brought in operating engineers to work the equipment who aren’t with the union or put other people on those jobs.”

The October 2019 BridgeMI article quotes Rieth-Riley as saying it was running at 85 to 90 percent capacity at that time, working to complete “78 active road construction projects with the state worth more than $155 million,” as well as various local projects.

The April 22 NRWLDF news item alleges some Union members have returned to work for the company despite the strike. McKernan told Watershed Voice none of Local 324’s members have crossed any picket lines.

Local 324 has been picketing various construction sites in addition to Three Rivers. News outlets around Michigan as well as the union have reported picketing in Owosso, Battle Creek, Charlevoix, Houghton Lake, Howell, and other locations. McKernan said, “jobs around Michigan have picket lines on occasion. They may be there for a day or two, then gone a few days and back. They’re kind of following wherever these crews are going.”

McKernan said the company has accused the union of propping up pickets with its own staff, but this doesn’t explain the work stoppage that took place when the strike began. He says given the geographic spread of the picketing, some union staff have joined the picket lines, but that striking membership is also present.

According to McKernan, the company has also made other accusations against the union. “(They said) the contract that all the other (contractors) had signed up for would prevent them from getting business on the northside of the state. Since these projects are paid for in some respect by Federal dollars, that would be untrue. It basically costs the same. If all the other contractors that we work with say that they can make it work, why would this one contractor not be able to?” Most Federal funding for state and local projects comes with wage and other hiring and costing rules that, in part, fix many of the costs that can be associated with a project like the road work taking place on US-131.

The union feels a stake in the company’s growth, McKernan said. “We invested significant money as a union over 20 years helping them build their business in Michigan, either by deferred wages or giving them breaks in different areas of the state.”

The Watershed Voice reached out to Rieth-Riley for comment Thursday, but as of Friday morning we have not received a response. We will update this story if any new information becomes available.

Dave Vago is a writer and columnist for Watershed Voice. A Philadelphia native with roots in Three Rivers, Vago is a planning consultant to history and community development organizations and is the former Executive Director of the Three Rivers DDA/Main Street program.