A new talk radio show, geared toward Las Vegas construction workers and union issues, is creating lots of ‘Back Talk’

Lisa Ferguson

Saturday, Nov. 29, 1997 | 3:59 a.m.

A new radio program has some construction workers around the valley putting down their hammers and tuning in.

On Tuesday mornings, in the pre-dawn chill, these hard-hatted tradespeople take an hour out to huddle around portable and car radios to learn about their on-the-job rights -- and how they're potentially being violated.

The lessons come courtesy of "Back Talk," an 8-week-old talk show which airs Tuesdays from 6-7 a.m. on KSHP 1400-AM. Sponsored by the Building Trades Organizing Project (BTOP), the program's target audience is the 63,000 construction workers in the valley, as well as other labor union workers.

But, more importantly, their non-union co-workers.

Co-hosted by BTOP director Jim Rudicil and local entertainer Gilda Longoria, "Back Talk" attempts to inform the valley's 35- to 40,000 non-union construction workers about the benefits of unionizing, and also about rights as workers they may not even know they have.

Non-unionized workers "basically have nothing," Rudicil says, in comparison to union workers who enjoy "good wages, good benefits, pension plans, a grievance procedure ... spelled out in a collective bargaining agreement.

"It's hard to believe (some) employers don't even provide their employees with water" on the work site, he says. Others pay workers in cash, which is illegal, or don't pay at all for overtime work.

Many workers "have no idea they're required to get two 10-minute breaks during the day," Rudicil says, or that they're protected under the Fair Labor Standards Act, which was the subject of "Back Talk's" first show. Other topics have included pension and 401K retirement plans and the future of the construction industry in Las Vegas.

"If you're not a member of a union, who teaches non-union workers what their rights are?" he asks. "We can't let those non-union workers be on the outside. We have to help 'em."

'Over the hump'

Founded earlier this year, BTOP is a collaborative effort funded by the national Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO and 15 of its craft unions, and the Southern Nevada Building and Construction Trades Council.

The pilot project's goal is to unionize local workers, a task which has never been easy, says Rudicil, an electrician by trade, who began his career in Michigan in 1968.

"When we first got here, it was very difficult to get those workers to even talk to us," he says. "If a union organizer walked on the job site, the workers were like, 'Get away from me.' They were petrified. They didn't know for sure if the unions were going to help them or not because of past practices," such as not aggressively recruiting new members.

But that's one of many union "philosophies" that has changed in recent years. "So we're over the hump now," Rudicil says. "They're starting to trust us. When they get fired, we do what we can to help them. We teach them how to stand up to the boss."

"Back Talk," which airs on a station otherwise devoted to a radio shopping format, is the only construction-oriented radio program of its kind in the nation.

That doesn't mean, however, that the subject matter is specific to Las Vegas, where land is being developed at the rate of two acres per hour and construction employment has doubled since 1992.

"We're starting to see more and more of this across the country, but (Las Vegas) is one of the worst areas (in terms of violations) I've seen," says Rudicil, who traveled throughout the United States and Canada during a previous, four-year stint as organizing director of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, to which he has belonged for nearly 30 years.

"The system is overloaded," he says, attributing it to Southern Nevada's population boom. "There's just a mass of violations of workers' rights."

Some employers, for example, discourage employees from discussing their wages with co-workers -- a right workers are afforded under the National Labor Relations Act. Others threaten termination for talking to, or accepting information from union representatives -- including BTOP -- on the job site.

Making air-waves

But even workers who are informed of their rights have a tough time protecting them, Rudicil says. "The only time you can go down to the Department of Labor (to file a complaint against an employer) is during the day ... (when) you're working.

"If we weren't here to help the workers, they'd get discouraged. We constantly remind them that they can come down here (to BTOP headquarters, located on South Valley View Boulevard) and we'll help them to process (a complaint)."

Besides visiting construction sites, where they distribute bilingual union information and booklets that help employees keep track of their working hours, BTOP representatives also make "house calls," visiting workers and their families in their homes after hours.

"We wanted to find another way that we could communicate with workers," Rudicil explains of "Back Talk's" beginnings. "People are starting to realize we're here to help them and the word is spreading."

"It gives unions an outlet to tell their stories, which doesn't come any other way," said D. Taylor, staff director of Culinary Workers Local 226, and a recent "Back Talk" in-studio guest.

Though listeners are urged to call in and voice their grievances, concerns and questions, callers have been few because, Rudicil guesses, at that hour they're on their way to or from work.

"We're more concerned with developing a listening audience," he says. "It's going to take a while to get into the habit of every Tuesday listening to a talk radio show." (The show, which was was originally to run for 13 weeks, has been extended through next year.)

But the early morning time slot hasn't kept workers' relatives from calling the show, says BTOP communications director Lisa Hubbard.

Because one in every 10 people in Las Vegas works in the construction industry, "There's obviously a lot of sons and daughters, aunts and uncles, mothers and fathers out there who have some connection to somebody who works in construction."

"Every now and then we'll get someone who calls in and says, 'My son is a painter ...,' and they'll have a question about his paycheck or something like that," she says, "so I think we do reach a broader audience."

Rudicil suspects construction employers are also tuning in. And that's good. "Now that they're hearing that their employees are being told (about their rights), we think that's going to act like an enforcement mechanism," he says.

In a written statement to the SUN, Robert Georgine, president of the AFL-CIO's Building and Construction Trades Department in Washington, D.C., said "Back Talk" provides the department with "an excellent vehicle for us to listen to the concerns of construction workers. We know it has hit a responsive chord by the numbers of calls and letters we get every week" about the show.

Hubbard says the show strives to provide news and information "about what it takes to improve the standard of living" for valley construction workers. "We're well on our way to doing that."

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