Union Tactics make local Businessman Sick

Local businessman steps up to support Anna Jaques Hospital.  Not all who have 'Right to Work' are or choose to be a union member.  Union workers along with set wage scale does not necessarily guarantee the best job for the money and disregards competent competition between businesses.   Salem schools falling down               

NEWBURYPORT — For months now, electrical union workers carrying signs and banners highly critical of Anna Jaques Hospital have become a familiar sight along many of the city's main roads.

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 103 has been protesting the Highland Avenue hospital's decision to hire nonunion electrical workers from MEC Electrical Contractors Inc. of Chelmsford for its $15 million expansion project.

The union's tactics, which include using a small plane and giant inflatable rat to spread its message and plastering car dashboards with negative fliers, are not sitting well with one local businessman.

Word late last month that IBEW Local 103 would continue its protests for another year proved to be too much for Michael Roy, co-owner of Haley's Ice Cream at the Route 1 traffic circle and former owner of Michael's Harborside on the waterfront.

Roy said over the weekend that he had ordered signs supporting Anna Jaques Hospital and will soon be protesting the protesters. He is hoping others will join him in holding signs that read "I support Anna Jaques Hospital."

"I don't want to be a rabble-rouser and create a big problem, but I do want to make a statement," said Roy, an incorporator for the hospital.