Video: Carpenters Union Protests on Myrtle

Carpenters union members picketed outside a running equipment store opening near Old Town Friday afternoon, protesting what they called sub-standard wages being paid to drywall workers at the location.

Carrying signs that read simply "Unfair," about two dozen members of the Carpenters Local 1506 union chanted things like "same work, same pay" outside the southwest corner of Paragon at Old Town, where A Snail's Pace running supply store is under construction.

Bill Henderson, a representative of the union, said A Snail's Pace hired a drywall contractor--Temecula Valley Drywall--that pays sub-standard wages to its workers.

"For them to be paying those guys 10, 12 bucks an hour, its not feasible for the average working man," Henderson said, noting that the workers also don't receive health benefits.

Doug Misemer, the president of Temecula Valley Drywall, said that the lowest paid worker he employs at the site makes $18 per hour. He said the union was only protesting because he does not use union labor.

"I’m a non-union contractor and they don’t like that," Misemer said.

Henderson said the union did not care if the workers used at the site were union members; they were merely trying to get the company to pay the "area standard wage," which he said was about $38 per hour.

"As long as they pay a decent wage with benefits, that’s all we care about," Henderson said. "But they’re not even doing that."

But Misemer said the $38 wage is only standard when it comes to government contracts. There is no "prevailing wage" for private contracts, he said.

An employee at Pasadena's A Snail's Pace location who identified himself as Jack Smith said the company had no comment.