Paver pulls workers after unions block equipment

The company is seeking an injunction to halt interference.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Cleveland Asphalt of Bessemer, Pa., won't continue paving on West Rayen Avenue until its workers' safety is guaranteed, a company spokesman says.
Walter Romano of Bessemer, whose wife owns the nonunion company, said Thursday that his lawyers will try to get a court injunction to prevent interference from unions whose members have been at the construction site.
Violence occurred at the site Tuesday, when a union representative videotaping the paving says he was beaten. Since then, 50 to 100 workers from a variety of unions have shown up to protest the attack.
The paving is a $750,000 Ohio Department of Transportation project on U.S. Route 422, Rayen Avenue and Oak Street from the Girard city line to Himrod Avenue.
Romano said he contacted ODOT inspectors Wednesday, who agreed his nonunion workers should not be intimidated on the job site.
An ODOT representative said ODOT officials would meet this morning to discuss this situation.
Romano said the project, which is about half done, was set to finish Oct. 15.
"We won't be back until it's safe, and we're done in the city of Youngstown. We won't bid on jobs anymore," Romano said. "Let the residents of the city pay more" for union work, he added.
'Couldn't get to machines'
Romano said 90 to 100 union workers surrounded Cleveland Asphalt equipment Wednesday morning that had been parked on West Rayen, just west of Belmont Avenue, and his workers "couldn't get to the machines."
He said the equipment had been vandalized. The damage included broken windshields, salt or sugar put in fuel tanks, slashed tires and cut electrical wires. He estimated the damage at $50,000, more if engines must be replaced.
Romano held up nails that had been welded together to demonstrate how some of the tires on paving equipment that hadn't been slashed had been flattened.
The equipment was moved to a secure location late Wednesday afternoon.
"We don't have to have this harassment," Romano said. "Someone was going to get hurt bad. That's why we pulled out."
Sons charged
Romano's sons, Michael Romano, 37, of Wampum, Pa., and Thomas, 33, of New Castle, are both out on $4,500 bond, each charged with assault and criminal damaging. They are accused of beating Blaine Daugherty III, of Willoughby Hills, Ohio, a union representative who was videotaping the paving Tuesday.
Walter Romano said Daugherty pulled a knife on his sons.
Police said no independent witnesses saw Daugherty pull a knife, however.
meade@vindy.com