Welcome to SHOULDER2SHOULDER.COM

ATLANTA CARPENTERS STANDING TOGETHER

TO PROTECT AREA STANDARDS

    The purpose of this web-site is to keep you updated on current and upcoming events taking place within the Southeastern Carpenters Regional Council.

    We also intend to keep you updated on the progress we are making through our area standards campaign. If you are not familiar with our area standards campaign, it is designed to stop the erosion of area standards by contractors who do not pay prevailing wages. This also includes either providing or making payments for family health care and pension benefits.

Honorable Carpenters

For far too long, carpenters in Atlanta have sat quietly waiting for contractors to recognize our valuable contribution to their company and to the city.  In fact, carpenters in Atlanta agreed to a PAY CUT in the 1980's to help contractors when the construction market was weak.  Contractors claimed to appreciate this selfless move by the honorable carpenters and promised to make it up to them when the work picked up.

Carpenters Abused

The work picked up but the promises were long forgotten.  Contractors in Atlanta have increasingly turned to a cash-pay system, resulting in depressed wages, non-payment of taxes or unemployment insurance, and even going as far as actually charging the carpenter for his own workers' compensation insurance.  The abuses are numerous, laws are being violated, wages are being forced lower, politicians are apathetic, healthcare and retirement are virtually non-existent, and carpenters have had enough.

Fighting Back

We are tired, and we have been knocked around, but we are mad, and we are fighting back.  We have asked contractors to respect us, we have asked politicians to help us, and we have tried to get the government to protect workers, but nothing has worked.  So we are doing the only thing left to do.  We are taking our case to the streets.  We know that when the good citizens of Atlanta realize how much this type of behavior is costing them in unpaid taxes, medical bills, and other costs associated with a cash-pay system, concerned citizens will stand with us and help us clean up this dirty little secret of Atlanta - one contractor at a time.