What's up with Fast Eddie's in RR? (Austin, Cool: contractors, wages)

[cmaxmor]

I was driving down I35S today and saw a couple of guys with a big sign that said something like,"Shame on you Fast Eddie's". Anyone?

[Mrs.JT]

I saw the same thing last week and wondered, myself. It's some kind of labor dispute, I think.

[Mike78613]

Customers are mad because their pool-tables suxs!!

[Jon Blaze]

Here is what I was given when I asked them about their striking.

[10scoachrick]

Originally Posted by Jon Blaze

Here is what I was given when I asked them about their striking.

So, all that deleted discussion was just 'smoking and mirrors'?

[uselessinfo]

Originally Posted by 10scoachrick

So, all that deleted discussion was just 'smoking and mirrors'?

Yes! All smoke and Mirrors! I wish I could find the author of that article! It really isn't Fast Eddie's responsibility to keep track of contractors' tax paying practices. Fast Eddie's has one responsibility - that is to send a 1099 by February of next year to the one contractor that was hired to do the job. That contractor, if he has hired workers, has his own responsibility to pay (either by contract or by federal wage laws) his employes or sub-contractors. That is how it works. Unless, there was another arrangement made via Fast Eddies. Somehow, I doubt it.
So...to the author of that atrocious "rat" post...NOT COOL!

[pandavision]

This has been going on for a about a month maybe even more. They are out there everyday from what I've seen. I saw it at another place driving by but thinking back I can't remember what the place was. I was wondering the same as well.

[centralaustinite]

There are similar "bannering" and flyers at several other work sites around town. In each case the business being targeted is a third-party to the dispute.

This is part of a national campaign to boost union membership, in Austin the real target of these tactics are the drywall subcontractors. At first the claim was that they pay substandard wages but the contractors were able to prove that their wages were market rate (or above) so now the line of attack is the use of by some drywall subs of independent contractors (1099) for small jobs.

The idea is that general contracting firms will be reluctant to use certain drywall firms out of fear that their customers could be targeted in this way. But it is such an indirect method and Texas is a right-to-work state . . . I don't see it building much goodwill toward unions.

In other places these bannering and flyer campaigns have gone on for years! The union pays (non-union wages, no benefits,) the people who hand out the flyers and hold the banners, oh the irony!