Orange County Choppers accused of hiring "scabs"

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/6683

Orange County Choppers accused of hiring "scabs"

Orange County Choppers rose to fame on the heels of a successful Discovery Channel television show that documented the often dysfunctional family run business. Now the company is in the spotlight for a completely different reason as unions protest the companies use of non-union labor and inability to pay union wages while constructing a new world headquarters in Orange County New York. The Empire State Regional Council of Carpenters and Electrical Workers Local 363 are leading the protest. IBEW Local 363 business agent Sam Fratto posted a video earlier this month documenting why workers are so upset:

: Scab contractors that are undermining standards of the local workers. Contractors that get the job by paying the people less and the big shit millionaires, the Tuttles, they know this is happening. It is all about the money. Some people can’t get enough; they have to exploit the little guy. We want everyone to know that this is hurting Orange County.

On Saturday a rally attended by hundreds of union members was held outside of the Orange County Choppers retail store. The protest was disbursed when fans of the television show arrived to defend their idols. Many of the union members arrived on motorcycles and circled the area. They sported t-shirts that read “Shame on you Orange County Choppers.”

[Bluzmann57]

1. Somehow, that doesn't surprise me

That guy who is the host (Jesse James?) doesn't really strike me as a Union type of guy. In fact, I bet he's a staunch righty. But he is married to Sandra Bullock if I'm not mistaken. So I guess he's got that going for him.

[givemebackmycountry]

2. Wrong Chopper company

These are the Tuetles (sic) from Orange County, New York.

Jesse James is West Coast Choppers in California.

[Bluzmann57]

3. Oh. Okay. Thanks for the info

Always glad to learn new info. I would hate to think that anyone who is married to Sandra Bullock is an Anti-Union guy, although I still have that impression of Ms. Bullock's husband.

[Rob H.]

6. I've read a couple of interviews with Jesse James

He is definitely does not come off as right-wing. From "American Badass" by Bill Vaughn, Men's Journal, October 2006 (emphasis added):

What even his ardent fans may not know, however, is that West Coast Choppers sponsors a homeless shelter in Long Beach so that 58 lucky men and women can sleep under a roof once in a while. (Neighboring business owners send him snotty e-mails complaining about his aid to the street trash they believe are smudging this multicultural city's efforts to reinvent itself as a tourist destination.)

And what some find even harder to believe is that instead of glorifying his days as a teen hood, James is deeply ashamed of them. His malicious mischief cost him a chance to play big-time college football, but the time in juvenile detention did serve a purpose. It was a slap upside the head that still drives him to create and achieve and accomplish something every day. Drawing on his image as a badass to appeal and relate to other teens headed for the trouble that almost ruined his life, James looks for ways to teach them the industrial arts that were his salvation. (On a practical level, he's starting a foundation to do just that.) His relentless pursuit of forward motion has also led him to design and build some of the most eco-friendly monster vehicles anywhere. He's no tree-hugger, but he's blowing the doors off the competition with less waste and degradation of the environment.

(snip)

...The topic turns to Iraq.

"You should see the size of those army bases," James says. "We're never leaving Iraq." Then the subject is George Bush. "Everyone in Iraq knows Bush is a dickhead. He's the boss's kid. Everybody I know who has a successful business who has a kid? The kid is always a fuckhead. You ever notice that?"

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. Having watched that program

before we threw out the dish and I detoxified my brain, I could see where Paul Tuttle would want to hire scabs. He was the epitome of the classic old capitalist/owner of a shop, imho.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. I hate these shows

Is this the one where the guy has a picture of the pResident on the wall in his shop?