Roy Autrey is a 58-year-old iron worker from Plaquemine. For the past 38 years, Autrey raised his 5 children and made his living working for Lafayette Steel Erectors, a structural steel company based in Lafayette.
But July 16 at midnight, LSE’s contract with the Iron Workers Union ran out. Autrey, along with 10 other employees at a State Street construction site for a new parking garage north of campus now are picketing outside the chain-link fence surrounding the site.
The parking garage, built in the University Shopping Center, will connect to two apartment buildings set to open by next summer.
“They don’t want to sign another contract, so they brought in non-union workers,” Autrey said.
Autrey said negotiations broke down after LSE presented a contract with a $1.75 wage decrease and no outside benefits such as health insurance and retirement.
The workers were paid $17.75 before the contract breakdown, Wayne Sullivan, Autrey’s co-worker, said.
Sullivan has been working as a professional iron worker for 33 years, and said he raised his two sons on his pay check.
“The original offer was $14, then they upped it to $16,” Sullivan said. “Plus an extra $35 dollars a day – but it doesn’t hold up to the benefits.”
LSE President J.B. Prudhomme said he wasn’t sure why negotiations broke down.
“Our intentions were to come to an agreement,” Prudhomme said. “The workers who are picketing have been replaced by a mixture of union and non-union employees.”
Sullivan said five non-union workers replaced the striking unioners today.
“A few non-unioners crossed the line today,” Sullivan said. “We didn’t say anything to them – there’s nothing to say.”
Daniel Navarre, business manager for the Iron Workers Union No. 623 in Baton Rouge, said the midnight deadline that expired July 16 was an extension from a June 1 contract deadline.
After more than 30 years of good relations with LSE, Navarre blamed the contract breakdown on a struggling economy.
“It’s corporate greed,” he said. “The company wants to make money on the backs of the workers.”
The non-union workers who now work for LSE were in need of a job, Navarre said. Because of the economy, they were forced to take less than they are worth.
“You can replace people and not have to pay them benefits,” Navarre said. “They are taking advantage of job-hungry people in the bad economy.”