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Labor Unrest on the Old Stomping Ground
(Copright, International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 542/reprinted with permission)
Remember when you saw the picketers assemble near our beloved old Harriton? Remember the huge rat? Remember the flyers and remember the traffic crowding the entrance to the parking lot? Words flew from mouth to mouth about what actually happened. Some thought it was about a raise in wages. Or about workers’ rights. Or about being in a union. Or about parking for the busses. Some just pushed it to the back of their minds. The staff was just as taken aback as the students. Confusion ran amuck within the Harriton body.
So what really happened? The Pennsylvanian workers from the International Union of Operating Engineers (Local 542), a consolidated group of laborers, were picketing against the Dore & Associates Incorporated. This was the company from Michigan hired by Lower Merion School District to demolish Harriton. The union members were claiming that Dore was underpaying its workers. The Pennsylvania Prevailing Wage Act, states clearly that all workmen involved in public work must not be paid any less than the ‘prevailing wage,’ which is a standard amount of money according to a specific type of job. Back in 2007, when Dore had been initially hired, Lower Merion School District had investigated Dore’s history and established that it was a “responsive and responsible bidder.” Dore had even signed a bond, assuring they would follow the regulations set by Pennsylvania.
Even before the picketing started, Mr. Patrick Guinnane, the director of Operations in the Lower Merion Administration, says that there had been some notice of “di
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