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Page 21

United Brotherhood of Carpenters

On June 1, 1992, nearly 1,800 drywallers affiliated

with the United Brotherhood of Carpenters walked off their

jobs over wage and benefit provisions.  Many of the dry-

wallers were also hoping to force the mostly nonunion sub-

contractors to sign union contracts.  The walkout shut

down construction projects all over southern California.79

Over the next few weeks, area newspapers would report the

same mode of attack:

One North County drywall subcontractor, who

wished to remain anonymous, said 150 pickets

stormed a job site in Carmel Mountain Ranch on

Monday and stole more than $3,000 worth of

tools. . . . Strikers kidnapped one worker off a

site in Temecula, said one drywaller who pre-

ferred not to be identified.80

On July 7, 1992, Michael Flagg and Gabe Martinez of

the Los Angeles Times reported that

workers were arrested en masse Thursday morning

in Mission Viejo after a drywall company called

sheriff's deputies and said the men had rushed

onto a housing tract, punched holes in drywall

and abducted workers. . . . Sheriff's deputies

caught up with a 14-truck-and-car caravan a few

minutes later.  The six men allegedly abducted

were released unharmed.  Deputies arrested the

148 men . . . [and] decided to charge the men

with felony conspiracy to commit kidnapping.

A suspicious thing happened on the way to the court,

however.  Deputy District Attorney Wallace J. Wade decided

"that there was insufficient evidence to tie anyone to the

alleged kidnapping," and declined to press the kidnapping

charges.  Later, John DeCarlo, an attorney representing

the various carpenters unions involved, gloated that after

the violent strike, "dozens of formerly nonunion drywall

contractors sign[ed] union pacts."81

WCI Steel

Two steelworkers locals struck the WCI Steel plant in

Warren, Ohio, on September 1, 1992.  The company began

operating the plant with replacement and salaried workers.

Soon, the salaried workers began receiving threatening

telephone calls, and many saw their homes vandalized.

Company officials alleged that a union letter encouraged