Construction firm, union end yearlong dispute

Friday, Jan. 12, 2001 | 10:58 a.m.

Jetstream Construction and the Nevada carpenters union have settled a yearlong labor dispute that led to charges of extortion and the barring of Jetstream from any Clark County School District construction projects.

"We have settled the issues with the workers, a lot of outstanding issues," said Jim Sala, an organizer for the Southern California-Nevada Regional Council of Carpenters. "They decided to clean up their act."

The agreement establishes the drywall installation company as a union shop by putting in a standard union contract, Sala said. The company also agreed to hire back 17 workers who had charged that the company required them to pay money back to supervisors in exchange for work on school projects, he said.

The company also bought out an owner that was responsible for many of the worker complaints, Sala said.

Jetstream officers and attorneys did not return phone calls this morning.

The union asked the Clark County School Board to take the company off the disqualified list Thursday night. The board agreed.

Sala said company representatives contacted the union shortly before Christmas through the Associated General Contractors, a trade group representing construction companies in the Las Vegas area.

"Initially we were hesitant to even meet with them," Sala said.

Early last year the union aired charges from Hispanic workers that the company required the kickbacks in order for them to keep working. The Nevada labor commissioner brokered a deal between the company and six of the workers, who received a total of $6,300.

The company did not admit any guilt or liability in the settlement, and throughout all last year said the issue was a union tactic to force a labor-approved contract on the company.

The union pressed the attack, however, and in September successfully lobbied the School Board to disqualify the company from its approved list of companies. The ban potentially meant millions of dollars in contracts for the company, which did at least a half-dozen jobs for the school district over the last two years.

Representatives of the Interfaith Council for Worker Justice, an advocacy group that had sharply criticized the company, said they were pleased with the resolution of the dispute.

"Obviously we're glad that Jetstream decided to make amends to the workers," said Mark Stotik, director of the council's Workers Rights Center. "We think it's important that companies that obey the law are allowed to bid on public projects, and that companies that don't obey the law, then rectify a problem, are allowed back into the bidding process."