Dive Brief:

• Hundreds of union protesters gathered outside the $5 billion Apple Campus 2 "spaceship" project late last week, contending that one of the subcontractors on the job was not paying the fair prevailing wage to some workers, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
• United Association (UA) Local 393 claimed that Preston Pipelines is not paying its employees the agreed-upon Department of Industrial Relations wage rate on the all-union project. However, Preston officials said they are paying workers the union wage they always pay for the class of work they believe is in question — laying polyethylene pipe.
• Preston construction manager Dan Condon disputed UA Local 393's assertions that the pipe is "special and should be paid at a higher rate." Condon said the issue is now in litigation, according to the Silicon Valley Business Journal.

Dive Insight:

At the height of UA Local 393 protest activity, there were approximately 200 picketers and reports of at least one vehicle being prevented from entering the work site until local law enforcement arrived.

Observers told the Business Journal that wage disputes are typically handled internally, but that the constant attention the Apple project gets from the media has shone a spotlight on this situation. Apple reportedly kept its distance from the wage dispute, leaving it to the contractor to handle.

Apple's construction project isn't the only major site with labor disputes recently. Earlier this month, approximately 100 union construction workers at the Tesla gigafactory in Reno, NV, walked off the project in protest over claims that a subcontractor was bringing in lower-paid workers from other states. The construction workers who left the job in protest have since returned to the site, but union officials said they will continue to pursue the issue.