Union protests concrete work

Steve Fainter and Danny Hendren are area residents and members of Construction and General Labors Local 955 which includes Randolph County.

Fainter and Hendren have spent the past week in the 200 block of N. Clark protesting the work being done by Concrete Engineering, LLC, of Jefferson City.

During the April 19 meeting of the Moberly City Council, the low bid of Concrete Engineering in the amount of $121,696 was accepted for the Municipal Building parking lot project.

Fainter and Hendren emphasize that their complaint is not with the City of Moberly for hiring the company. Their primary complaint is that the company, which Fainter says had at one time suggested they would join Local 955, is not Union and does not employ available Union workers who live in the area, such as Hendren and Fainter.

“They used us (Local 955) to learn how to get jobs,” said Fainter.

Another complaint the two men point out is alleged “shoddy’ workmanship, pointing out certain ADA “discrepancies”.

Carl Baysinger, marketing representative with Laborers’ International Union of North America, stated that Concrete Engineering, while not a Union company, must pay prevailing wage. When asked how the company could have an advantage over Union companies if prevailing wage is required, Baysinger said it was possible not everything was included in the bid.

Baysinger and another Union rep, Nicholas Pavia, Sr. have had similar dealings with Concrete Engineering this year. In Fayette, the laborers’ group also took issue with what they alleged was substandard work on sidewalk work commissioned by that city. According to the Fayette Democrat-Leader, any discrepancies found in the sidewalk work there has been repaired and the company has been paid in full.

No comment was available from Moberly City Manager Andy Morris or Concrete Engineering, LLC at press time.

Photo above:  Steve Fainter, left, and Danny Hendren, right, protest the work of a non-Union concete company working on the parking lot of the Municipal building.