Protesters rally against Lamar

Protesters outside Forest Quad shouted, “Money for school and education, not for Lamar and discrimination.”

Members of the Workers Freedom Coalition and IU students converged Wednesday afternoon to protest what they called unfair working conditions and safety procedures against Lamar Construction of Hudsonville, Mich., one of the companies sub-contracted to work on the Forest renovation.

Lamar Construction is a sub-contractor of the primary contractor Weddle Construction of Bloomington, said Tom Morrison, vice president for capital planning and facilities, in an email.

“Indiana University is not aware of any safety violations on this particular job, and this has been confirmed with Weddle, who is responsible for all job-site safety and compliance with all University, state and federal rules and regulations,” Morrison said.

The project, which will create a new dining hall, is scheduled to be completed in fall 2013.

Bob Andree, a current Lamar Construction employee on strike, said he came to IU from Michigan specifically for the protest.

“We’re keeping track of where the company is going because we’ve tried to appeal to the company about their safety,” Andree said. “We’re trying to appeal to everybody to grow a coalition of people to support our cause and make the company change.”

According to the U.S. Department of Labor website, Lamar accrued 116 Occupational Safety and Health Administration violations between 2002 and 2011.

OSHA violations are cited when an employer does not fulfill rules and regulations put in place by the U.S. Department of Labor.

“That’s like an OSHA violation every month,” Andree said. “There’s career-ending injuries that was involved. There was a death on a job site.”

Will Randolph, a former Lamar employee and worker’s rights advocate from Greensburg, Ky., said the extent of his equipment training was a short written test with answers on the back.

Students and members of organizations such as Communications Workers of America Local 4730 joined to protest safety conditions.

Ed Vasquez, president of Local 4730, said his chapter is concerned with workers’ conditions.

“We’re also concerned they are doing a poor job with steel structure,” Vasquez said.

Students also protested a rise in tuition and administrator pay.

“Tuition’s rising while administrator pay rises, (and) conditions for IU workers are getting progressively worse,” said senior Aidan Crane, a former IDS opinion columnist. “Students are being driven into worse and worse debt, which will haunt them for the rest of their lives.”

Crane said it’s time that he and others fight back.

Students have proposed a mass assembly on Dec. 5 to plan a strike for the next Board of Trustees meeting in response to rising tuition and student debt, the presence of racism on campus and working conditions for IU staff and faculty, according to a document by Student Power IU.

“We’ve tried to negotiate with the administration, and they’ve tossed us aside at every turn,” Crane said. “So, we’re done playing their game. We’re out here to try to build the first wave of support for a student strike.”