Subcontractors Agree to Negotiate With Drywallers

After a summer of picketing, vandalism and lawsuits, drywall workers won a major victory Thursday when some of Southern California’s largest drywall subcontractors agreed to negotiate with a union to settle the 4-month-old strike.

The subcontractors, who met Thursday, issued a one-sentence statement saying “a number” of them had agreed to talk to the carpenters union about representing 4,000 drywall workers in Southern California.

Union officials say the drywall workers’ organizing drive is the biggest in the nation. It is also among the most unusual in Southern California: The drywallers, most of them immigrants from rural Mexico, organized the strike themselves. Many of the leaders are from a single village in central Mexico--El Maguey--and are related, which accounts for much of their solidarity.

Drywallers hang the broad sheets of plasterboard that form the inner walls of buildings.

The strikers were jubilant Thursday, though both sides say there are many obstacles to a quick settlement.

“This is at least a little something, a beginning,” said Jesus Gomez, spokesman for the strikers. “It lifts my spirits.”

The workers want their first raise in 10 years and benefits such as health insurance.

The strikers surprised the subcontractors--and some of their own members--by holding out through the summer. Donations of food and money from supporters, activist groups and unions kept alive the strike that began June 1.

Then in August, the workers began employing an effective new tactic: accusing their employers of not paying overtime and suing them in federal court for hundreds of thousands of dollars in back wages. Fear of huge legal fees and the possibility that they might have to open their books finally drove the subcontractors to negotiate, people on both sides say.

It was clear from the subcontractors’ statement Thursday afternoon that not all of them want to recognize a union, although one subcontractor said a “significant number” favor at least talking to the union about settling the strike.

The trade group that held the meeting, the Pacific Rim Drywall Assn., represents two dozen of the largest drywall subcontractors in Southern California.