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Posted: 1:51 PM- Shame on Boyer Co. Shame on Rossignol. Silver Mountain Sports Club? Shame on them, too.

Companies with seemingly nothing in common are being targeted with 4-feet by 20-feet banners that read "Labor Dispute - SHAME ON [Name of Business]."

The banners are the work of the California-based Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters, an affiliate of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America that includes Utah carpenters and drywallers. The group uses the banners to attract attention to companies they say employ non-union subcontractors that pay substandard wages and benefits. On any given week, the banners could be up at dozens of Utah businesses.

These aren't active protests, by any means. There is no one on hand to explain to anyone who is interested why they are even there. In fact, the people holding the banners don't usually discuss why they are there.

As a result, many people who live and work near the banners are indifferent to them. Brandon Barz, who works at the Boston Deli in downtown Salt Lake City, said he "was not really interested" in the banners near his restaurant that were targeting the developer of a new office building.

Still, Dan O'Shea of the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters says the banners are effective at getting his organization's message across.

"They let people in the community know about contractors who don't play on an even playing field," O'Shea said. "Good contractors provide health coverage and pensions to people. That's how we raise families."

But it is not quite as simple as all that, as any of O'Shea's targets can attest. Subcontractors all have different pay and benefits packages whether or not they are members of a union. And with the tight labor market, few companies paying substandard wages would be able to find all the workers they need.

Stanton Jones, owner of Silver Mountain Sports Club in Park City, believes the council is targeting any project not using subcontractors that are members of their union.

Jones, who is developing an office building at Kimball Junction near Park City, is using New Star as the general contractor, with a number of subcontractors doing various jobs on site.

The banner problem began when New Star hired Kenco Drywall, Jones said.

"There was not one union drywaller that wanted to do the job," he said.

O'Shea said if no union drywallers bid on that job it was because they weren't invited to do so. Subcontractors don't bid on jobs they aren't invited to bid on, he said.

In any case, after the hiring of Kenco, which is non-union, banners went up across town at Jones' Silver Mountain Sports Club. The banners were not in front of the office building. And they didn't say "Shame on New Star" or even "Shame on Kenco Drywallers."

"They wanted me to fire (Kenco)," Stanton said. "I don't really care that they're doing (the banners.) But if no union wants my job and then they are complaining I didn't hire a union, that's silly."

O'Shea insists the issue is not one of unionized companies versus non unions.

"There's a lot of non-union contractors who take good care of their employees and we don't have an issue with them," he said. "They provide health coverage and they are good community citizens."

The campaign has targeted a number of contractors, including New Star General Contractors and Okland Construction, both of which several years ago had some employees withdraw from the Southwest Regional of Carpenters.

Dave Love, owner of New Star, said the dispute today has gone far beyond his company and Okland. "They put up banners at any business that doesn't hire their members now," he said.

Phil Harmon, who handles business relations for New Star, said the "Shame On" banners are misleading because they make the public believe that there is a labor dispute with particular businesses. There is in fact no "labor dispute," he said, only a union trying to draw more members and pressure companies to use union labor.

Harmon said in the current commercial construction boom, there is not enough non-union workers to do all the work that needs to be done. Plus, he said, non-union subcontractors are not paying substandard wages and benefits.

In any case, there is nothing he and others can do about the banners. In 2004, a federal judge ruled that O'Shea's organization has every right to display the banners.

The judge said the banners are protected by free-speech safeguards in the U.S. Constitution. The ruling and several others like it in other states mean that Utahns are likely to see those banners for a long time to come.