Members of the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters stage a banner action during the April 30 lunch hour in front of downtown Olympia McDonald’s at Plum Street.
If you’ve driven down Plum Street in Olympia around lunch time, you’ve seen them: a group, holding a banner, outside the McDonald’s at Plum Street and Eighth Avenue Southeast.
And they have been there for quite a while.
The group represents the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters, a union, that, from time to time, will appear in front of a business they are unhappy with and express their displeasure.
This can come in two forms: a “banner action,” where members simply appear daily and hold up a banner about their concerns, or it can come in the form of a picket, where members mill around with signs in their hands.
Council spokesman Ben Basom said banner actions can last 45 minutes or up to two years, which explains the activity outside McDonald’s. There, the union has dug in and spent about a year at the business, holding up a banner that calls attention to their labor dispute.
Members participating in the action declined to comment to The Olympian, but they did hand out a flier that accuses McDonald’s of “cutting corners by hiring (non-union) contractors like EM Precision.”
Spokesman Basom said the action is not unique to McDonald’s, but it is to the contractor.
“We have had an ongoing labor dispute with EM Precision,” he said, claiming the business does not meet area standards for wages and benefits.
Basom said the journeyman wage in Western Washington is $42.36 per hour, plus full family health care. They also receive pension contributions so that members can “retire with dignity.”
He estimated the range of pay offered by EM was $20-$25 per hour, with no pension contribution and an employee-purchased health care plan that doesn’t cover other family members.
Puyallup-based EM Precision owner Tim Nemeth disputed that information, but declined to speak at length. He said his workers, which number about 80, are paid a wage that is competitive with any contractor in the state.
According to city of Olympia building permit information, EM was hired to do interior and exterior renovations at the McDonald’s. Permits were issued in June 2018 and the work was completed in March.
The Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters is part of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, which has 500,000 members and represents a number of trades across the U.S. and Canada. The council itself has more than 28,000 members and it covers six states, including Washington, spokesman Basom said.
On any day, there are about 20 banner actions taking place across the council’s service area, he said.
What’s the goal of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters? To regain 70 percent market share of the trades it represents across the country.
“The 70 percent goal isn’t just commercial construction (although it’s a primary focus). It would be in pile driving, millwright work, scaffold building, and the other trades we represent,” Basom said.
They have reached 70 percent in Seattle and Portland, two cities booming with construction, but the percentage is lower in outlying areas, Basom said. He estimated the union’s market share in Olympia at 50 percent.
The council’s banner actions and pickets can target those big and small.
In fall 2017, council members picketed outside of Olympia Construction on Fourth Avenue. Owner Mike Auderer could not be reached for comment.
And in 2007, they picketed the Cabela’s construction site in Lacey because of a subcontractor they said was not paying a prevailing wage to its workers.
Kimberly Presto, owner of the Plum Street McDonald’s, could not be reached to comment for this article, but she did provide a statement.
“As a Washington native and resident, I’m proud to serve my Thurston County neighbors every day,” she said. “I care deeply about the community I live in and support local businesses whenever possible.”
Presto told her story to The Olympian in September 2017.
Presto said then that she has been part of McDonald’s for 36 years. She grew up in Belfair and began working at McDonald’s in Bremerton as a teen when she needed to earn money for school clothes. She later worked at McDonald’s while attending Central Washington University in Ellensburg.
She bought her first McDonald’s in Shelton in 1998, then later sold it and bought six locations in Everett. She later sold those and bought into the Olympia market. All five stores in this area employ 250 people. Her goal is to operate 10 locations.
McDonald’s has provided her with a sense of family and belonging. “It’s the culture that I fell in love with,” she said.
Although the council is not specifically targeting McDonald’s, Basom said that if the company continues to employ EM Precision, they will continue to exercise their free speech rights and hold banner actions and distribute handbills.
In fall 2017, members of the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters picketed outside Olympia Construction.
