ANNALS OF LABOR RISD dispute obscures broader union gains BY BRIAN C. JONES

Construction workers have begun tearing apart the inside of the old Hospital Trust bank building in Providence to convert the upper 10 floors into dormitory rooms for 500 students at the Rhode Island School of Design. The multi-million project has been praised as giant step both for RISD and for Providence — because it brings students of the nationally famous art school from College Hill onto the edge of downtown, continuing the rebirth of the city’s crumbling center.

But recently, RISD, the building’s owner, Gilbane Properties, and its sister company, the Gilbane Building Co., have come in for harsh criticism. In handbills — including one featuring an overfed rodent — a number of labor unions are protesting the use of mostly non-union contractors at the project. "Gilbane is determined to use ‘rat contractors’ on the RISD downtown dorm project," says one leaflet. "A ‘rat contractor’ is one that does not pay area standard wages and does not provide its employees any type of formal training."

The unions say the RISD project breaks a practice in the city of Providence of using mostly union contractors for such projects as the Rhode Island Convention Center, the Fleet Skating Rink, and the Providence Place Mall. "This is a blow against the building trades," says Scott G. Duhamel, a union organizer. As an educational institution, RISD should respect the commitment to worker training by the unions, Duhamel says, and Gilbane should remember that the company "historically was built on union sweat and muscle."

Duhamel, of the Painters’ Union, and officials of the Sheet Metal Workers and Electrical Workers unions, say they are worried about the loss of jobs not only on this project, but on future projects in the capital city. However, a deeper look into this dispute reveals that labor is also making important gains. In the past few months, Gilbane has signed agreements with the two major unions — the Laborers and Carpenters, with 2000 members each — to use union contractors throughout New England.

According to Ronald M. Coia, president of the Rhode Island Construction and Building Trades Council, as well as a top Laborers official, the agreements end decades in which Gilbane had not been a signatory to labor agreements common to contracting firms.

The catch, Coia says, is that the two big unions acknowledged that the RISD project had already been contracted out in terms of their work — meaning that those key unions are staying out of this dispute. "What we did will be beneficial" for labor in general, Coia says of the new agreement with Gilbane, which is among the country’s five biggest construction managers. Of the RISD project, he says: "I agree this is a bump in the road in this particular job."

Gilbane spokesman Wes Cotter says the firm has a long history of using union labor, and that the RISD project shouldn’t be interpreted as "a relationship-type problem."

Union protests haven’t moved RISD. An exchange of letters between Duhamel and RISD president Roger Mandle began cordially in May, but soured by June, with Mandle at one point admonishing, "Please note the correct spelling of my name." Mandle argued that the college, as a building tenant, has no control over construction contracts. Duhamel replies that tenants "always have the power" to shape such projects. In fact, RISD already owns the first two floors of the building, which will become its library, and it has an option to buy the leased dormitory floors.

The unions are pledging to continue their leafletting and protests. "We are not going to go away," promises John Shalvey, organizer for Local 99 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.