Union rally protests dearth of local hires for Walmart project in Butte

DUNCAN ADAMS The Montana Standard

Roughly 60 members of regional unions and their supporters rallied on a rainy Saturday morning to demonstrate discontent with the dearth of local hires for a construction project at the Walmart in Butte.

The demonstrators stood on a sidewalk along Harrison Avenue to avoid being on Walmart property.

Representatives of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America emphasized more than once that the outing was neither a picket nor a formal union action. A sign read, “Labor Dispute Coming Soon.”

Mario Martinez of the Carpenters Union addressed the crowd.

“What we’re doing right now, everybody, is an informational action to inform the community that we were overlooked on the project over there,” he said, pointing toward the work underway at Walmart.

“We’re not here picketing today,” Martinez said. “It’s an informational action for the community. If you come to Butte (as a contractor), we expect you to consider the locals here.”

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Their beef was not only with Walmart and the general contractor, Engineered Structures Inc. out of Meridian, Idaho, but also with a pattern they described as troublesome.

“Our community expects local businesses to hire local contractors but many of our contractors in Butte and Silver Bow County are seeing an alarming trend of large corporations contracting out of state,” said Joel Worth, a special representative for the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters.

That trend is what could ultimately spark the labor dispute referenced by the sign, Martinez said.

Matt Joyner, a spokesman for Walmart, responded to the union members’ complaints.

“We hired ESI as the general contractor for this project, and the subcontractor selection is managed by them through a competitive bid process,” he said.

“We’re proud to be part of the Butte community – our store employs nearly 400 associates who live in and around the area,” Joyner said.

Both Martinez and Worth noted that the Walmart store on Harrison Avenue benefits from the steady patronage of the store by regional shoppers.

And they said young people in the region who are hoping to start in a union apprenticeship program could have received valuable experience working on a project like the Walmart expansion.

Both Worth and Martinez said the unions had reached out about the Walmart project and gotten the sense that local contractors would be included in bidding the work. For the most part that has not happened, they said.

Worth acknowledged that a plumbing contractor out of Anaconda and a masonry contractor out of Helena are working at the site.

ESI did not respond to a request for comment.

The demonstrators gathered around 9 a.m. and left around noon.

Twice a year, New Yorkers gather for one of the two annual spectacles of Manhattanhenge. The term was coined by Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson in 1977, the name is a reference to Stonehenge.

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