Court upholds non-union carpenter training program

Grace Leong

Thursday, Oct. 18, 2001 | 9:50 a.m.

The Nevada Supreme Court has rejected the Carpenters Union's appeal of rulings upholding the state's certification of two non-union training programs.

The Southern Nevada Chapter of the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), a non-union builders association, said the ruling will advance its apprenticeship programs and help expand its membership.

The battle began in June 1999 after ABC applied to the state for certification of two training programs targeting the open-shop (non-union) building sector. ABC, which said its programs offer training to apprentices in carpentry and painting, said 75 percent of all construction work in Nevada is non-union.

Warren Hardy, ABC's executive director, said state certification not only provides additional credibility to the two programs but gives employers an incentive to hire apprentices.

"Under prevailing wage rules (for government contracts), employers can't pay trainees apprenticeship rates unless the trainees are from a state-certified program," he said. "For example, if I, as a contractor, have four journeymen (professional carpenters) and one trainee who isn't from a state-certified program, I'll have to pay all five of them journeymen wages. So there is little incentive for employers to hire apprentices."

"The purpose of ABC's programs is to get more trainees on the job site," he said. "Without state certification of those programs, there'll be little opportunity for the trainees to get hired."

But the Nevada State Apprenticeship Council (SAC) -- a government board appointed by the state Labor Commissioner -- denied ABC's application, ruling the programs didn't meet state requirements. ABC then appealed the decision to the Labor Commissioner Terry Johnson, who reversed SAC's ruling and approved ABC's application.

The Carpenters' Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee, a joint effort between the union and organized carpentry firms, then filed a petition seeking to overturn Johnson's ruling. But Clark County District Judge Michael Douglas dismissed the petition last February, saying the unions "were not an aggrieved party."

The Carpenters then appealed Douglas' decision to the Nevada Supreme Court. But the Court, on Oct. 11, affirmed Douglas' decision, saying that while Nevada law gives any party the right to appeal to the labor commissioner, it nevertheless restricts that right to "aggrieved parties."

"Since the (SAC) denied ABC's application as recommended by the (union), the (union) wasn't aggrieved by the (SAC's) decision and therefore had no right to appeal that decision to the Labor Commissioner. Therefore no due process rights were violated in the Labor Commissioner's exclusion of the (union) from the appeal," wrote Nevada Supreme Justice Cliff Young in the ruling. ABC's Hardy said the union is opposed to ABC's carpentry and painting programs because it sees them as competition to the union's existing training initiative and because ABC is a non-union contractors' association.

"Fighting against our efforts to improve the construction industry is counter-productive," Hardy said. "Nevada is a right-to-work state. We have the right to choose whether to be union or non-union. While ABC is not anti-union, we also feel we should have the right not to be union."

But Marc Furman, chairman of the Southern Nevada Carpenters & Millwrights Apprenticeship & Journeymen Training Trust Fund, disagreed.

"It isn't about ABC's apprenticeship programs. It's about whether the union has standing to appeal the Labor Commissioner's decision. Since the Supreme Court has rejected our appeal, we're now looking to see if there are any legislative remedies," he said.

ABC, which said it provides classroom and on-the-job training to its apprentices and also helps them find employment, said it can now move ahead more aggressively with its apprenticeship recruitment drive for the two programs.

ABC blamed its low membership for the carpentry and painting programs, which began last February, on the union's attempts to block state certification of its programs. ABC said it only has a total of 16 apprentices for the two programs compared with 155 members for its existing electrical program.

"We weren't accepting applications for the two programs last month. We only started accepting this month. We've got 70 new applications so far this month for the painting and drywall programs and we expect to accept a majority of these applications," Hardy said.

But Furman attributed ABC's low membership for the two programs to a lack of funding.

"ABC's programs are a joke." he said. "ABC has had no legal problems with going ahead with their program. They've had the program for a year and a half now and they only have 16 members to show for it? That shows they lack funding." He said some 700 members are enrolled in the Carpenters' training program.

"The SAC denied ABC's application because it felt ABC was running a program for the interests of the employer rather than the employee and was concerned about whether ABC had the financial resources to run the programs," Furman said.

But Hardy disagreed, saying ABC's training programs are funded largely by non-union construction companies that hire its apprentices.