Unions may picket Qwest Field

Local labor unions are threatening to picket Qwest Field, upset that Paul Allen's First & Goal company won't require music promoters to hire union stagehands for concerts at the stadium.

Union leaders complain that a nonunion Mercer Island firm has been hired for every concert at Qwest Field, despite an agreement signed by First & Goal in 2003 saying the stagehands union would be the "preferred provider" of concert workers.

The nonunion company, Event Resource Management (ERM), provides no health benefits, and union workers claim the firm has underpaid employees and even bounced some paychecks after last year's Rolling Stones concert. ERM also is locked in a dispute with the state over unpaid industrial-insurance taxes.

Unions supported the construction of Qwest Field and have a right to demand good treatment for workers, said David Freiboth, executive secretary of the King County Labor Council. "They want public funds to build these and then they want to screw the workers? We've got a problem," he said.

Union officials are demanding that First & Goal force promoters to hire union workers for concerts both at Qwest Field and the new WaMu Theater, a concert venue that opened last year in the attached Qwest Field Events Center.

Union leaders have brought their complaints to the Public Stadium Authority, the public board that oversees Qwest Field.

A First & Goal executive said the company wants all workers to be treated fairly but said a union-only contract was too restrictive for concert promoters.

"We felt that it was in the best interests of the building to allow the promoters to choose who they do business with," said Martha Fuller, chief financial officer for First & Goal and the Seattle Seahawks.

First & Goal has ensured that promoters who hire nonunion workers pay them wages similar to what union workers earn, Fuller said. Most stadiums do not require union stagehands for concerts, with the exception of KeyArena, which is owned by the city of Seattle, she said.

John Morrison, co-owner of ERM, said union leaders were lying about his company to shut out competition. "They're like little children. They complain about most things," he said. "I think the marketplace is best served with competition."

While Qwest Field was built in 2002 primarily for Seahawks football games, it is increasingly being used for concerts. Last year, a portion of the attached Events Center was turned into WaMu Theater — created through a deal between First & Goal and AEG LIVE, a major national concert promoter.

Stagehands are needed for every concert, to lug heavy speakers, string audio cables and set up stage lights. Labor leaders want to ensure those workers are union members getting a certain minimum level of wages and health benefits. It's part of a larger push to force the use of union workers at other large publicly owned facilities, including the Everett Events Center and the Tacoma Dome.

Bill Wickline, business representative for the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 15, said First & Goal refused to negotiate with the union despite the agreement signed three years ago.

To make its case, the union has sent members to work for ERM on some Qwest Field shows and report back on working conditions. Those workers said the company violated labor laws by not providing timely breaks and requiring workers to show up early without pay, Wickline said.

After the Rolling Stones concert last year, workers also had to stand in line for up to a half-hour before they could get time cards signed — also time for which they were not paid, said Nick Shelman, a stagehand who worked the show.

Shelman said his $120 paycheck bounced after the Stones concert. Other workers reported the same problem, according to Wickline. Shelman's paycheck cleared after ERM told him to redeposit it, and the company also paid a $20 overdraft fee.

ERM boasts on its Web site of an "immaculate" safety rating with the state Department of Labor and Industries, and an agency official said L&I has no record of recent safety violations by the firm.

ERM owes more than $140,000 in unpaid 2002 industrial-insurance taxes plus penalties, according to L&I spokesman Robert Nelson. The unpaid taxes were discovered after an L&I audit, he said.

ERM has disputed the tax debt and filed a lawsuit last month accusing L&I of damaging its reputation by issuing a tax warrant to collect the debt while the company was still appealing.

Morrison declined to comment on the tax dispute, saying it was "not germane."

Jim Brunner: 206-515-5628 or jbrunner@seattletimes.com