Ironworkers picket to expose untrained, underpaid workers at Lakeville Walmart site

More than 200 Iron Workers and supporters conducted an area standard picket at a construction site in Lakeville Friday, to call attention to the fact that unskilled and underpaid workers are erecting the steel for a Walmart Supercenter.

Members of Local 512 of the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers marched to the site near the Highway 70 / 210th St. exit off Interstate 35W. They held signs to educate the public about the exploitation of the poorly trained laborers who are being paid substandard wages by subcontractor AME Construction of Wayzata.

Iron Workers and supporters picketed outside the construction site of a Walmart Supercenter. Local 512 Business Manager Charlie Roberts said area standard picketing will continue until the contractor starts paying fair wages and benefits.

“It’s time to stand up for our brothers and sisters who are the best at what they do but are being left on the sidelines,” said Charlie Roberts, business manager for Local 512, which has not picketed a job site in Minnesota since the late 1990s.

“AME is exploiting workers,” Roberts added, “and it’s time for them to stop these deplorable business practices.”

Formally speaking, Local 512 staged what is called an Area Standard Picket. That means “we intend to deliver our message in a peaceful and orderly manner,” said Roberts, whose local operates regional offices in the Twin Cities, Duluth and central North Dakota.

The timing of this labor action was tied to when the first steel starts going up at the site, located at Keokuk Ave. & 207th St. West, in an expanding shopping district on the south edge of the Twin Cities.

“Even if we can’t reverse the woeful situation AME has created,” Roberts added, “Local 512 and its rank and file are determined to make their voices heard: This anti-worker scheme must not be repeated.

“Not only is the safety of those untrained workers at risk, but the public must also be concerned that a major retailer’s building was erected with untrained labor.”

Local 512 represents more than 1,230 journeyman members and 117 apprentices. Local 512’s jurisdiction includes all of Minnesota, North Dakota and 21 counties in western Wisconsin. Local 512’s three regions – in St. Paul, Duluth and Mandan, N.D. -- each have their own offices and training centers.

For more information, visit www.ironworkers512.com

Video produced by Barb Kucera and John See, Labor Education Service