Union Protest Raises Eyebrows

The appearance of a coffin on Park Avenue Wednesday, accompanied by someone handing out a scary flyer, made blogger Maria Pellum wonder what was going on. If it had been a giant rat, it would have been evident to most people that it was a union protest. But a coffin?

A coffin, it seems, is the new rat.

Plaintalker did a little checking and learned more.

The target in this situation was a company doing asbestos remediation at a South Avenue building that is slated to house a charter school. So why put the coffin on Park Avenue? The address is where the Friends of the Central Jersey Arts Charter School are registered. The protest comes from Local 78 of the Asbestos, Lead & Hazardous Waste Laborers of New York City, New Jersey and Long Island. The object of the protest is Global Safety Contracting of Wayne.

Alerted to the protest, Global Safety General Manager Mark Jovic said, “They’re trying to slander my name.”

He drove to Plainfield, but the coffin was removed before he arrived. Workers in the office building, who expressed disgust at the ghoulish display, told him it would be back tomorrow. Jovic surmised that the union, which alleged that his company was not in compliance with state regulations, was trying to force him to take on union workers. But he said of a dozen bidders on the job, not one union company applied.

Jovic said he fully complied with all state and local regulations and had received no violations. He began the job when the building had a private owner, he said, but upon finding out it had changed hands and was going to house a school, stopped work to regroup and meet stricter regulations that apply to schools.

“We did everything by the book,” he said.

Baron Hilliard of the Friends of Central Jersey Arts Charter School also said state officials had visited the site Tuesday and found it in compliance.

“There was nothing wrong with the way they were doing the job,” Hilliard said.

The Friends group is the new owner of the building, according to the tax assessor’s office.

Local 78 organizer Eli Kent said the coffin and flyers were only meant to “raise awareness” of asbestos hazards. He alleged that Global Safety had done “80 percent” of the work without notifying the state of work on a public building, which triggers stricter regulations. The union did not seek permission to display the coffin, which Kent said fell under “freedom of speech.” Asked how long the protest might last, he said it could go on “for months.”

The flyer included phone numbers for Shalawn and Baron Hillard and urged residents to “tell them to hire only responsible contractors to perform this hazardous work.”

Jovic found the union’s alarms a bit ironic, saying a New Jersey local of the same union had merged with the New York local after one of its leaders was allegedly found guilty of taking bribes to allow non-union workers on jobs. (Plaintalker was able to find information online corroborating this charge.)

So if you see a coffin on the 1000 block of Park Avenue tomorrow, draw your own conclusions.

--Bernice