Mara Gordon | Unionization isn't the issue

When I met Bob Bark outside of Fresh Grocer last week, I thought I'd be writing a simple pro-union column.

Bark had handed me a flyer that announced: "Newsflash! Campus Apartments has decided to hire an electrical contractor who does not pay what the government says is a fair wage."

Bark is an ordinary guy, a Philadelphia native whose black hair is tinged with the first signs of gray. He's also a representative of the local chapter of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the major union for electricians in Philadelphia. That's why Bark has been out there for the past month or so, handing fliers to anyone who will take them.

The union's cause is simple. Campus Apartments is developing condos at 43rd and Spruce, and they hired a non-union company called Primary Electric for the job. The IBEW Local 98 - that's the Philadelphia chapter - says this is wrong, since Primary Electric is a small company that can't afford to pay its employees as well as the union does.

Instead, the IBEW Local 98 argues, Campus Apartments should exclusively hire union laborers, who are guaranteed fair wages and health insurance for themselves and their families.

"It's very important to me," Bark says. "I have four children. Being [in] middle class America, I only want my kids to do better than me."

Unions are controversial in a city like Philadelphia, where tales of strikes and bureaucracy permeate the local news. They have a reputation for being slow and expensive.

Talk to Bark for a few minutes, however, and you might be convinced otherwise.

He's worked as an electrician for years because he dreams that one day, he'll be able to send his kids to a school like Penn. Since the union provides excellent benefits, he hasn't had to worry about health care or not being able to find a job.

I admit I was on Bark's side of the story when I went to check out the Campus Apartments construction site. The way he described Primary Electric, I expected sweatshop conditions and a tyrant boss who provided no health coverage for his employees.

But instead, I talked to a young Primary Electric employee remarkably similar to Bark - just trying, he said, to earn a living for his family.

The electrician wouldn't tell me his name, but he said he graduated from Temple University a few years ago.

Primary Electric only has a few employees, but he's happy with the benefits the company provides for him and his family.

"I love my small, family business," he said. "I gotta feed my kids, too."

According to Campus Apartments CEO David Adelman, whether or not his company contracts with union laborers is really just a question of cost. He chose a non-union company for this job, but IBEW workers will be completing the next major Campus Apartments project, the new hotel at 40th and Baltimore streets.

"It's not [the IBEW's] God-given right to get the work," Adelman said.

"We award work on price, quality of work, the time at which the work will be completed."

Adelman should add one more criterion to that list: Contractors must pay their workers fair wages and provide comprehensive health insurance to their families.

Unions do a lot of good, ensuring rights for workers who otherwise might have none. But small businesses often succeed where unions fail, doing efficient and locally-specific work. There's no easy answer in the union vs. non-union debate.

But one thing's clear: it's up to big companies like Campus Apartments to make sure they only do business with socially responsible contractors. Both Bark and the Primary Electric workers have the right to health insurance and fair pay, whether or not they join a union.

Mara Gordon is a College senior from Washington, D.C. Her e-mail is gordon@dailypennsylvanian.com. Flash Gordon appears on Wednesdays.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.