A 10-foot inflatable rat with possessed-looking red eyes towered next to the construction site on Farm Lane Road and East Circle Drive.
The rodent was supposed to symbolize non-union workers, said Ben Lyons, a laborer from the Laborers' Local Union 499.
The Ann Arbor-based union began picketing at the site Monday because workers there are not unionized. The protesters said construction crews on MSU projects are normally unionized — and they don't understand why workers from their union weren't chosen for this particular project.
"When something this large, and this amount of money and with all the work that is coming to campus, we find it necessary to fight for our work," picketing laborer Joseph Bugbee said. "We have to put our foot down. We have no choice."
The steam tunnel project will upgrade heating facilities and roads near North Kedzie Hall. The contract was awarded to Granger Construction Company, which subcontracted the work to a non-unionized company, Bugbee said.
"Unfortunately, we have laborers living right here in Lansing that haven't worked in eight or nine months, and they need to get to work. They've got bills coming in, no health care, nothing."
Work hasn't stopped at the site.
Members of the Graduate Employees Union, or GEU, showed their support by visiting the picketers and providing words of encouragement.
"This is just the beginning," GEU President Bill Hannah said. "That is the problem I see. This construction is just the beginning of years of long construction of this whole corridor here.
"If this is how they start out, by working with a company that is willing to subcontract to non-union labor, they've already failed."
Bugbee said an ideal situation for local unionized workers would be the establishment of a university agreement to only allow unionized crews to do work on campus.
"Most universities use union workers for these large projects because they are skilled, they're trained and it's a quality workforce who has been drug tested," he said. "Our workmanship is a lot better.
"You don't get the rework and you don't have to worry about employees getting hurt, or even a student getting hurt."
