Roofing job assist rankles union on strike

EAST CHICAGO | While most members of a local roofing union are on strike, area roofing contractors said Thursday they're using an all-hands-on-deck approach to help a Hammond-based firmfinish one of its important projects.

However, an attorney for the union said contractors have escalated the tense labor situation by continuing to do project work with personnel not in the bargaining unit.

Negotiations between the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers Local 26 and the Northwest Indiana Roofing Contractors Association have been at a standstill since a recent contract expired May 31.

Union members have been on strike since June 1 and have organized consistent pickets of contractors' offices and job sites. Job sites where the union has signed project labor agreements are not affectedby the strike.

To avoid a project delay on the 56-unit Northtown Village Senior Apartments, Korellis Roofing President and Co-owner Pete Korellis said he reached out to supervisory personnel of competitors E.C. Babilla Inc. of Gary and Gluth Brothers Roofing Co. Inc. of Hammond to help.

Korellis said the partnership is rare in the area and shows the solidarity contractors have with one another.A small crew from the companies and Korellis' wife and business co-owner Susan Korellis, started work Wednesday on the project, which is part of the city's North Harbor revitalization plan.

Pete Korellis said by Friday, enough work can be done to allow inside work on the building to continue.

The construction timeline calls for work to be done by Sept. 30. The Community Builders Inc. is the project developer.

"Basically we help one another out when you're in need and heck, when Pete made the call and said hey, 'I need some help'; we're here and more than willing to give him any help that we can give him," said Russell Gluth, of Gluth Brothers Roofing.

Don Schwartz, a partner at Chicago-based law firm Arnold & Kadjan retained as counsel for the union, said it's rare for supervisory personnel to take this adversarial approach in collective bargaining.

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Roofing job assist rankles union on strike