Phoebe Barr ’19
Non-unionized workers are employed in Episcopal’s dining hall expansion, a complex decision with a great deal of history behind it. Though area unions have been known to protest the use of non-union labor, Mark Notaro, Director of Operations, explains that EA has typically friendly relations with unions.
“We had a great relationship – I say that not because it’s changed, but because, while we built the campus, all the contractors we used were unions,” Notaro says. The current campus was built exclusively with union labor because “they could mobilize the sheer number of people they needed on this campus at once. There are some very large non-union contractors, but fewer that could handle an entire development.” The cafeteria expansion on the hand, while “The highest budget project we’ve done since we’ve moved out here,” according to Notaro, is not nearly on the same level of cost. In this case, it is apparently more advantageous to go with non-union labor.
Furthermore, the bidding process for hiring workers is about size and scope more than about union or non-union workers. “After we get a set of plans and specifications that we feel comfortable with,” Notaro says, “with the help of the architectural firm that we’ve hired, we identify firms that best fit with what we’re trying to do for our project. We want to make sure we’re not getting a really small firm where this is a big stretch for them – and then vice versa, we don’t want a huge firm and this is like a blip on their radar so they don’t give it the right attention.”
Whether to use union or non-union labor comes down in the end to pricing. “The biggest, most glaring advantage is cost. (Non-union workers’) Labor cost is typically less,” says Notaro. T.J. Locke, Head of School, emphasizes this point as well saying “Union bids come in much higher, and we would either not be able to do the project or we would have to raise tuition.”
Unions have protested the use of non-union labor before. In 2014, according to an article from WHYY, ten members of Ironworkers Local 401 went as far as coercion and arson. Though, a more common form of protest is use of the symbolic “inflatable rat,” a large rat balloon, to protest poor conditions or non-union work. Notaro felt no such controversy at Episcopal. “One union company actually bid it out, a company we’ve worked with in the past,” he notes. There has been no sign of protesting on Episcopal’s campus, though union members are keeping abreast of the process here Notaro says that “The unions have shown up a couple of times and have been poking around, asking a lot of questions.”
Unions have a long history in the country, and their importance has constantly been subject to change and scrutiny. Robert Trumbull, teacher of AP Government and Politics, explains, “Unions have played a big role in the lives of workers. We saw unions being formed to help increase safety in factories that had been ignored.” He adds, “They serve a role to speak to management about wages and issues. For a long time, they were a major force in the Democratic party.” However, such importance and national attention has waned.
“Union membership has been declining,” Trumbull continues, “with many manufacturing jobs being shipped overseas. The service sector is much harder to unionize.”
Teachers at Episcopal, certainly, are not unionized. Teachers’ unions, a staple at many public schools often seen in the news striking for better pay and more government funding for classrooms, are absent at Episcopal. Lee Billmyer, a member of the Upper School English Department who previously worked at a public school and was part of a union, expressed satisfaction with this change. “I’m not opposed to all unions,” she says, “but I didn’t see why teachers needed to be in unions. Teaching is a noble profession. We’re there because we believe in what we do.” In public schools, Billmyer felt pressured to be part of a union. “I had pressure from all my colleagues,” she says. “I was ostracized if I didn’t join.”
In some cases, however, Billmyer agreed that teachers’ unions might be beneficial. “I might feel differently now,” she says, “now that so many violent, threatening events have occurred in public schools. I could see where I might need someone greater than myself to fight for protection for me and the students.”
Though Episcopal’s relationship with unions is friendly, Notaro concludes that the school is, in the end, a business. “Our primary job,” he says, “is just to make sure that we’re good stewards of the school’s finances, and we also want our project to be done right. So there are times when the union labor pool is going to make more sense, and times when it won’t.”