Pickets protest against subcontractor

One worker said no one was working at the building because of the pickets.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Pickets from the International Association of Heat & amp; Frost Insulators and Asbestos Workers union showed up at the East High School building project Friday to protest against a subcontractor on the job.
Hall Insulation of Garfield Heights pays its workers below the area standard wages, said Tom Williams, a union organizer at one of the gates to the $30 million project.
Williams said the union wants people to know that Hall isn't paying the prevailing wage, nor is the company paying fringe benefits.
A half-dozen union members staged an "area standards picket" at Gate "A" at the East building site starting at 7 a.m., and Williams said no one entered through that gate.
Some people did enter Gate "B" a block away, but a worker leaving the site around 9:30 a.m. said no one was working inside because no one would cross the picket line.
Normally, there are a couple hundred people working on the site, he said.
Williams said no Hall employees were on the job Friday.
He said the union also organized picketing at another Hall job site in Akron and handbilling at a third near Columbus.
He didn't know if pickets would be back at East on Tuesday after the holiday.
Schools response
M. Mike McNair, spokesman for the city schools, said the site wasn't shut down by the pickets and that the two-gate system was created to allow nonunion workers to access the work area through one gate and unionized workers through another.
Hall employs both union and nonunion employees, McNair said, noting that the company is also working at the Kirkmere Elementary renovation project.
Hall officials couldn't be reached to comment.
Williams said public school districts are exempt from having to meet prevailing wage requirements found in most government-funded projects.