Posted on 01/17/2013 10:54:41 AM PST by reaganaut1
PHILADELPHIA — It was several weeks ago when vandals struck the building site, setting fire to a crane, cutting deep gashes in steel columns and loosening the bolts that anchored them. The episode resulted in about $500,000 in damage and was, the authorities believe, apparently an attempt to halt the construction of a Quaker meeting house.
The $5.8 million building was being constructed for the Chestnut Hill Friends, a Quaker community in a northern section of Philadelphia. Cuts in the steel columns that make up the building’s frame were made with an acetylene torch, indicating that the attack was carried out by someone with both the equipment and the expertise to operate it, the police say, suggesting that it may have been the work of trade unionists who were disgruntled after being refused work on the site.
“It’s not being done by 12-year-old vandals,” said Lt. George McClay of the Philadelphia Police northwest detectives division, which is leading an investigation into the episode. Fire officials are treating the attack on the crane as arson.
Asked whether the damage might have been an attempt at intimidation by union members, Lieutenant McClay said: “It does point in that direction. Can I prove it? Absolutely not.”
Pat Gillespie, business manager of the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council, which represents about 60,000 construction workers in 42 local unions, rejected suggestions that members were responsible for vandalizing the meeting house. He said that the relatively small project would not generate enough union work to explain any such attack, and that union members would not want to jeopardize chances of future work by alienating potential employers.
The episode may have been a result of a payment dispute, he said. “Maybe that person had business dealings that didn’t go too well.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
He said that the relatively small project would not generate enough union work to explain any such attack, and that union members would not want to jeopardize chances of future work by alienating potential employers.
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You could spread that on the ground and you wouldn’t need fertiliser.
I would never trust a union member. A friend I grew up with and really liked turned into a union thug after high school. I’ll never talk to him again after the way he treated me over buying a German car. I went to a union meeting during an attempted unionization where I worked. They were all a bunch of losers. We voted their a$$es out.
By the way, I know some members here are union not by choice. I don’t mean you.
While I don’t know anything specific about this Quaker congregation, most of the “Friends” I’ve ever met were far to the left. This may be just a case of Karma breaking out.
“Cuts in the steel columns that make up the building’s frame were made with an acetylene torch, indicating that the attack was carried out by someone with both the equipment and the expertise to operate it,....”
It doesn’t take a lot of “expertise” to cut steel with an acetylene torch. OTOH, rejoining the pieces would.
I’ve worked union shops before - but always under protest. I’ve also been the target of union intimidation attempts (same as you - an attempt to unionize a shop) and offered to “trade calibers” with one.
I’ve vowed never to work for the bastards again.
Liberals are (un)naturally better at breaking things than they are at building anything.
Workers have a right to organize, but the inflexibilty that unions bring just make them a huge drain. Now UAW guys can watch the southern states crank out cars (with non-union labor) while they wait in Michigan for the buffalo to come back.
Ping for Philly news in NY.
If you see posts of interest to Pennsylvanians, please ping me.
Thanks!
Thanks brityank for the heads up
P.S. - used to work in a union shop (GM, decades ago), and can vouch that this type of thuggery is not out of the bounds of possibility
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