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Water trucks douse Pulte protesters in YouTube video
The Arizona AFL-CIO on Thursday said the organization has in its possession more than half an hour of video footage it claims shows a Pulte Homes water truck spraying paid picketers with high-pressure hoses...Petroulakis said the people shown in the video were paid by the union to picket at the worksite and added that picketers were warned that trucks would be spraying in the area, which is shown at the beginning of the video... But Kennedy said that the only editing done was to compress half an hour of footage from an incident into a two-minute Internet video. She added that her organization was aware of at least 15 other similar incidents. Related article
Water trucks douse Pulte protesters in YouTube video
Jordan LaPier
The Arizona Republic
Jun. 21, 2007 09:07 PM
The Arizona AFL-CIO on Thursday said the organization has in its possession more than half an hour of video footage it claims shows a Pulte Homes water truck spraying paid picketers with high-pressure hoses.
The video was posted Wednesday on the Web site YouTube by AFL-CIO. Pulte Homes claims its requests to review the video were denied.
In the video, two men are shown arguing before the scene switches to a truck spraying a group of picketers, backing up and dousing them again, and then moving forward for a third shot of water.
“The video on YouTube is a very brief video of what actually happened on several different occasions,†said Dana Kennedy, a spokeswoman for AFL-CIO.
Pulte spokeswoman Jacque Petroulakis said that the video shows the trucks are actually not owned by Pulte, but rather belong to a subcontractor.
Pulte Homes is one of the nation's largest homebuilders and employs hundreds of subcontractors on the site at Merrill Ranch alone, where the incident allegedly occurred.
“We in no way condone this and it's something we take seriously,†Petroulakis said. “It is on our site and we take full responsibility.â€
The truck spraying picketers in the video does not have a Pulte Homes logo on the side. But Kennedy said that AFL-CIO has more video, possibly as much as two hours worth, proving otherwise.
“We do have footage of a Pulte truck obviously spraying workers,†she said. They plan to show that video at a press conference tomorrow.
Petroulakis said the people shown in the video were paid by the union to picket at the worksite and added that picketers were warned that trucks would be spraying in the area, which is shown at the beginning of the video.
Kennedy said the incidents stem from a weeks-long strike by employees of several subcontractors working at Pulte construction sites.
The workers allege that there was not enough water provided at the worksites and that they were forced to either work without a number of safety devices or purchase that equipment themselves, according to state Rep. Steve Gallardo, who has been helping to work toward a compromise that would end the strike.
Kennedy said that workers who complained about the conditions had been fired on several occasions.
But any disagreement is strictly between the workers and their employers, the subcontractors, and not Pulte, said Petroulakis.
Gallardo said that if the allegations are proven true, Pulte would have to answer questions to “not only the workers but to legislators.â€
Requests to see evidence of either unsafe working conditions or instances where picketers had been sprayed with water were rejected and that Pulte representatives were alerted to the video by members of the media, not AFL-CIO, according to Petroulakis.
“They refused to give us a copy†of the video, she said. Pulte representatives did not see the video until Thursday.
Gallardo said it was brought to him about a week ago. A letter from a lawyer representing the picketers obtained by Azcentral.com from AFL-CIO, dated May 21, and sent to Pulte outlined one incident where picketers said they were sprayed by a Pulte truck and warned that any future incidents would result in legal action. Another letter dated May 23 complained that a similar situation had occurred, this time with a Del Webb truck.
Lawyers for Pulte responded in a letter provided to Azcentral.com by AFL-CIO dated May 25 by saying that federal laws require contractors to spray down dirt on the “public right-of-way and beyond†to control dust around worksites. The exact definition of that term is unclear. The letter also alleged that picketers were on Pulte property and not the public right-of-way on “some occasions†and warned them to keep off private property.
Petroulakis also questioned the video's authenticity, claiming that it had been “heavily edited.†She said that portions of the video show at least two incidents on different days and in entirely different locations.
It is unclear who shot the video.
But Kennedy said that the only editing done was to compress half an hour of footage from an incident into a two-minute Internet video. She added that her organization was aware of at least 15 other similar incidents.
On the Net:
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0621pulte-video0621-ON.html
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