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Director of the IWDCNE Litigation Division
~ Profile of the Litigation Division ~
Unique in the Country’s
labor movement exists our very own
Iron Workers District
Council Litigation Division. This Division provides
daily legal services, support, and advice to each local union’s
Industry Analyst; each Local Union (through its respective Business
Manager’s Office); and each affiliated management/labor trust group
in the Council. Management/labor trust fund groups include each
local union’s joint apprenticeship committee, the Councils health,
welfare and other benefits trust funds, and the Labor Management
Cooperation Trust (LMCT) Fund.
Signatory Contractors
Utilizing a partnership model of
cooperation, our Litigation Division also services many of our
signatory contractors regarding their construction litigation and
collections matters. Our members learned first-hand that when a
union contractor fails because it never received payment for its
services, services we helped provide, then that contractor cannot
likely employ our members in the future. This concept applies
acutely to the many smaller contractors who employ a bulk of our
Members.
Non-union Iron Workers
More often, however, the Litigation
Division helps educate and represent non-union workers who have
legitimate claims against their current and/or past employers. Our
Litigation Division provides these iron workers legal and other
advice regarding their rights in the workplace, including workers
compensation, hiring/firing, organizing, workplace harassment &
discrimination, wage and hour law, 401k-type pension law, statutes
of limitations, and a plethora of other legal matters. Of course,
our Litigation Division associates with local counsel in each of the
New England states to provide these services in all the states.
District Council Staff Education
Another important role played by our
Litigation Division regards the legal education of the District
Council’s professional staff. Each staff member learns and applies
all the federal and state law triggered in our business. For
example, staff members learn and apply the many federal and state
laws regarding construction financing, zoning, design, procurement,
bidding, contracting, and project coordinating, as well as the
Davis-Bacon and state prevailing wage laws. This educational
component includes teaching and learning the legislative processes
and legislative drafting, i.e., writing and advocating for better
laws.
Daily, our attorney educates the Council’s full-time professional staff and explains what laws provide opportunity, what laws hurt, and what potential changes to current laws might better ensure our Member’s sustained economic security.
Benefits/Results
Using this unique model, our membership
has become a well-respected entity within our industry. Daily, it
fights to clean up the cheating we witness. These efforts have assisted
us in establishing and maintaining the integrity of the New England
ironworking industry.
Disclaimer
As the District
Council currently enjoys the unionization of over 6,000 New England
Iron Workers and hundreds of signatory contractors (and
ever-growing), our members and contractors understand that access to
the Litigation Division must remain restricted through each Local’s
Business Manager with the advice and consent of the District Council
president.
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