Business & Tech

Inflatable-Rat Protests Stop Construction on Randall Road Parking Lot

Union pressure has halted shipments from the project's asphalt supplier; protesters claim the nonunion contractor pays inferior wages and benefits.

The picketers of the Laborers’ Local 582 union who have been protesting construction on a St. Charles parking lot—accusing the project’s contractor of paying substandard wages and benefits—have brought the project to a halt, the Kane County Chronicle reports

According to the paper, the union has been using inflatable rats and signs to protest nonunion general contractor VFS Concrete Inc. for about a month, and union pressure has caused the contractor’s asphalt supplier to stop deliveries this week, effectively interrupting work.

Vito Scavelli of VFS Concrete told the paper that the union was making a “nuisance,” saying that the company was “trying to improve the shopping center” and that he would be “playing the waiting game.” 

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Picketers declined to speak to the paper and a call to the union went unreturned. 

Read the full story at the Kane County Chronicle website.

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