On April 24, 2009, Local 853 Secretary-Treasurer Rome Aloise led pickets from around the Bay Area as they converged on Graniterock’s Redwood City facility to greet “area dignitaries and customers” attending CEO Bruce Woolpert’s Customer Open House. One problem . . . by the time the pickets left, no customers or dignitaries had been seen entering the “extravaganza.” The message on the picket line was clear; Bruce Woolpert was GUILTY of numerous unfair labor practices concerning his withdrawal of recognition of Local 287 in the South Bay.

Woolpert’s concern over the embarrassing impact of the picket line on his event was evident as the besieged CEO paced up and down the street (to the chant of “liar, liar, liar”), stopping only to take pictures of the defiant picketers, Local 853’s mobile office and the giant inflatable rat that hovered over the event. Bruce even called the Redwood City police (again!), which, as always, amounted to nothing except forcing the financially strapped city to absorb the time-consuming expense of sending four squad cars to the “scene of the crime” (Bruce must have really told the RCPD a whopper this time; usually they only send one car). Along with Rome Aloise, the picket line included ready mix drivers, union officials and a contingent of Plumbers who were repaying Local 853 for honoring their picket line on a two-gate job earlier in the month in San Francisco. There were no reports of words being exchange between Aloise and Woolpert, but Bruce must have wondered why Rome was on one side of the street with scores of supporters and he was on the other side with just his bodyguard.

Graniterock CEO Bruce Woolpert has had a tough go of it recently. Production at the Redwood City plant is rumored to be down 60 percent, resulting in a severe reduction of drivers. Woolpert’s paving company, PAVEX, is facing an $800,000 fine for delays on one highway project and is rumored to be facing $300,000 on another. Bruce also lost a major lawsuit against Local 287 (he was asking for $20 million) and has to pay the union’s legal expenses. He is currently facing unfair labor charges in his campaign to remove recognition of the Teamsters in the South Bay and is being sued by his employees for violating California’s meal break regulations. He recently lost an attempt to get significant tax write-offs for equipment at his massive Aromas quarry. Oh, and it is rumored Bruce is contemplating closing the Redwood City ready mix plant. One thing is for certain; the former Teamster members at Graniterock who chose to go non-union got just what they were wishing for . . . a workplace without a union, without protections and, apparently, without a future. Be careful what you wish for.