Picketing slows work on Bellevue Towers

Construction at a Bellevue building site was slowed Wednesday as workers declined to cross picket lines put up by Bothell's International Union of Operating Engineers Local 302.

But the manager at the site -- Bellevue Towers, a pair of high-end glass condos at Northeast Fourth Street and 106th Avenue Northeast -- said he expects all workers will be back on the job Thursday.

Local 302 says two concrete-pouring companies, Kent's Brundage-Bone Concrete Pumping and Seattle-based Ralph's Concrete Pumping, have illegally interfered with employees' exercise of their self-organization and collective-bargaining rights.

The pickets, which were at the site briefly Wednesday morning, said Local 302 has filed unfair labor practices charges with the National Labor Relations Board against those two companies.

The companies hired former members of Local 302, who left that union over contract issues and were taken in by another union, Seattle's Laborers Local 242.

Victor Rennie, program superintendent at Hoffman Construction Co., said "only a small percentage of the usual workers" were on the job at Bellevue Towers on Wednesday.

"The cost (of the picketing) was a good share of the day. I don't anticipate further costs," he said.

Rennie said the picketing doesn't concern a union grievance against an employer -- circumstances under which union workers typically refrain from crossing a picket line.

Rather, he said, it's "nonstandard picketing -- fighting in the family. It's like Mom and Dad are in a spat, so the neighbors have to move out."

He said workers should check with their unions' business agents to determine whether they can cross the picket lines.

Most can, he said, so he expects workers to be present in full force Thursday.