By CARL GREEN
Correspondent
Collinsville, IL – Union plumbers in the Metro-East have had enough of non-union companies making false promises to customers and underpaying their employees, so on June 12 they shared their concerns with the public.
More than 30 plumbers wearing white t-shirts formed a line along Illinois Route 159 at the Orchards Shopping Center, the home of Tiger Plumbing Services, a non-union company that promotes itself heavily in the Metro-East.
Matt Langendorf, lead organizer of the Illinois Pipe Trades Association, came to lead the protest, along with Don Degonia, business manager of Plumbers and Gasfitters Local 360, and Mark Thomas, business manager of Steamfitters Local 439.
MISLEADING ADS, HIGH PRICES
The plumbers were opposing Tiger’s use of misleading advertising and high prices.
“We would really like the public to check with the Better Business Bureau and Yelp before they would ever use Tiger,” Langendorf said. “That’s the big deal. If you go to BBB.org, it is former customers telling you what happened in real-life terms.
“We’re here to make the public aware today. That’s what we’re doing. Don’t trust Tiger!”
Added Thomas, “We don’t like them taking advantage of our local and elderly citizens. They take advantage cost-wise of people who don’t know any better and charge them a lot more than they should be having to pay – especially the elderly.
“They charge more than our contractors, and maybe for selling things that don’t need to be sold to people who don’t know any better,” he said.
PLUMBERS UNDERPAID
Earlier, the plumbers paid a visit to Embrich Plumbing in Maryville for underpaying its employees.
“We asked Embrich if they would please pay their employees a fair wage for the work that they do,” Langendorf said. “Because of the Illinois plumbing license law, it’s easy to have a big gap in relative wages.
“We’ve been contacted by a lot of their current and former employees, and they were substandard – definitely compared to Local 360, the plumbers and gasfitters here.”
- Share this story:
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
They charged $310 and that was an overcharge of $200. For a small part for my furnace that took the worker 5 minutes to install. Never again.
They wanted to charge me $1300 for a sump pump. The plumber I used charged over $1000.00 less.
They are professional and courteous but agree their charges are too high. They replaced 3 natural gas elbows in my basement at a cost of $1800 and we’re only here 2 hours. They also found 2 minor leaks on sink lines and wanted $400 to replace the valves. I declined, called another plumber and he simply tightened the valve packing. Charged us $100 for a service call!