Protest Near City Hall

For John, BLUF:  Union protest at City Hall over who gets work.

In his Saturday Chat on page 3 of The [Lowell] Sun, Mr Kendall Wallace talks about three issues going on in our community,♠ including honoring the late Paul Sullivan and also Ken Harkins.  He talks about CNAG and gun violence.  He also talks about downtown renovation and about the work Trinity Financial is doing in the former Freudenberg building.

What Mr Wallace does not mention is that there were IBEW members holding a sign down on the sidewalk in front of City Hall.  I saw them two different days last week.  This did not seem to be a picketing operation, as they were not near the work site and were not preventing people from entering or leaving the work site.

At least one of them was the same guy (north end of the sign).  The argument from the Union man was that the Union helped get the permits for earlier like work and now the work is going to non-union folks.  Is this a true representation of the facts?  I don't know, but I do know that fair is fair.  I think unions are good for the workers, but at the same time I don't think everyone should have to belong to a union to work.  That takes us back almost a thousand years, to craft guilds, which excluded others from their work.

I would like to see something in our newspaper on this.  Maybe there has been and I missed it. 

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Remember, articles in The [Lowell] Sun go away after a while, to a different place.  I will not be updating their links unless I am bedridden and have read every book in the house.