By Jeff Lipton
, organizers said.The picket line began to form with about 20 union members on Monday, June 23, outside Aqua, a 36-unit structure under construction at Lincoln Boulevard and Surf Avenue at the boardwalk, and will continue from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily until the developer, Engel Burman, decides to hire union workers, protest organizers said.
The protesters also set up a 15-feet-tall inflatable rat, which union officials often deploy to signify their displeasure with jobs being given to non-union workers.Jan Burman, president of Engel Burman, said some union trades were working on the job. “We give the work to the best bidder, union or non-union,” he said. “That particular job has some union bids. We are building a first-class luxury building and hiring the best contractors we can find.”
The protesters, led by Carpenters’ Local 45 in Queens, accused the workers of not using proper safety measures at the job site. Workers were on the job without hard hats or the proper equipment, the protesters said.
“These workers are working for substandard wages and no benefits,” said one union protester who identified himself only as “Ed.”
“They are really working for nothing and working dangerously, there are no harnesses, no hard hats,” he added. “They are just passing the materials up alongside the building without securing anything.” Burman vehemently denied that workers on the Aqua project were not taking safety precautions. “We’re enforcing safe building practices,” he said. “They are wearing hard hats and harnesses. There have been no accidents at all. This is a first-class job.” Ed said the non-union laborers, who are willing to work for much cheaper wages, are taking away jobs from licensed union carpenters. “Basically, if this keeps up, they are going to put all union carpenters out of work,” he said. “There are too many non-union jobs popping up all over the place. We want to turn this into a union job site.” “The workmanship is very shoddy for the price they are getting for these condos,” said Mike Rodin, a business agent for Local 45. “The non-union workers are being taken advantage of. We have a safety record and are licensed. We would take measures to prevent accidents.”
Construction on the luxury seaside condo, which began about seven months ago and is expected to be completed in late fall, will feature direct boardwalk access, two covered parking spaces, indoor pool, outdoor dipping pool, fitness room, oceanfront clubroom and concierge, according to the Engel Burman Web site. With ocean views from each condo, the units range in size from 1,730 to 2,400 square feet and in price from $1.3 million to more than $3 million. The six penthouse units have rooftop terraces complete with spa and outdoor kitchen.
“It’s going very smoothly, and the construction is ahead of schedule,” said Burman, who added that the infrastructure of the building has been completed.
He added that the project is being monitored very carefully. “We monitor all our jobs very closely,” he said. “We’ve been doing this a long time and we know what we’re doing.”
One of the penthouse units recently sold for more than $2.8 million, reportedly the most expensive ever in Long Beach, and another is close to being sold for $3.5 million, said Burman.
Burman called the protests at Aqua “unfortunate,” adding that “they can do what they’re doing as long as it’s according to the law.”
Rodin acknowledged, “We have a long fight ahead of us. My goal is to stay there as long as it takes. We want to be a thorn in their side.”
As for the inflatable rat, Rodin said, “It’s our way of saying that these people are not doing the right thing. The non-union guys are going against the American way.”
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