Developer Accuses Unions of Dirty Tricks

PHILADELPHIA (CN) - Nine unions angry about its hiring of nonunion workers resorted to asbestos and urine as tools of intimidation, a real-estate developer claims in state court.

Post Goldtex GP, LLC claims that since November 2010, a slew of unions have been harassing it for its hiring of nonunion workers.

Not content with physically blocking people and vehicles from company properties in the heart of Philadelphia, the unions planted "loose asbestos materials" at one site and "bottles filled with urine were strewn throughout" another, according to the complaint in the Court of Common Pleas.

Goldtex claims the unions took their harassment campaign to the home of the company's principal, Matthew Pestronk, in January, parking a pick-up truck with a giant inflatable rat across the street from his house.

In February, when Pestronk was a panelist at a Philadelphia Risk Management Association roundtable, the unions "attended the event with the purpose to harass and embarrass Mr. Pestronk," and tried to circulate defamatory flyers, the complaint states.

In March, unions vandalized a Goldtex property "by covering it with copies of a photograph of Mr. Pestronk's wife, Carrie, with several penises superimposed on her with the phrase 'CARRIE PESTRONK LIKES TO GET HARD WITH IT,'" according to the complaint.

And union members snapped photographs of the pregnant wife and of Pestronk's 2-year-old "in an attempt to intimidate and scare," the company says

Named as defendants are the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, Sheet Metal Workers Local Union No. 19, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union No. 98, the International Union of Operating Engineers Local Union No. 835, Steamfitters Local Union No. 420, Laborer's International Union of North America Local Union 332, International Union of Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers Local Union 1, Ironworkers Local 401 and the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council.

Goldtex demands an injunction barring the unions from picketing at the properties, including the Pestronk residence, for any reason.

It is represented by Charles Ercole, with Klehr Harrison.

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