NORMAN — Members of Carpenters Local Union No. 329 conducted a protest this morning outside a University of Oklahoma Campus construction site, during the second of two days of protests.

The union members were protesting Tulsa-based Green Country Interiors, one of the contractors working on dormintory construction on Lindsey Street.

According to the union members, many of whom are former employees of GCI, the company pays sub-standard wages, thereby making crucial healthcare plans financially unattainable to many of their workers.

“We want to inform the public of this and ultimately get the wages these workers deserve,” spokesman Lester Weidman said.

A woman who answered the phone Thursay morning for Green Country Interiors in Tulsa said the company president declined to be identified and that he had no comment.

According to Weidman, the union currently has several labor disputes, but Thursday’s protest was specifically aimed at GCI, not the general dorm project or any of its workers.

“We’re protesting at whatever work sites GCI is working on,” Weidman said.

As of May 2010, the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the U.S. Department of Labor reported that construction and extraction workers in the Oklahoma City area earned wages that were “measurably lower” than the national average.

The average national hourly wage for construction workers was $21.09, and Oklahoma City workers’ average wage was $17.94, showing a disparity of over 10 percent.

What’s more, construction workers constituted 5.5 percent of local employment, significantly more than the national share of 4.0 percent, accounting for more than 30,000 jobs in the Oklahoma City area alone, according to labor department figures.

According to Weidman, poor pay for construction workers not only eradicates their health-care access, it also puts more honest companies at a disadvantage in a competitve bid market.

By cutting back on the hourly wage of its employees, companies theoretically can make cheaper bids on large projects such as the OU building, squeezing out the pricier bids of more labor-friendly employers.

The mood of the union’s protest was spirited but upbeat, with protestors marching in a circle and chanting slogans like “Who’s the rat? GCI’s the rat.”

Union members protested at OU on Wednesday and Thursday mornings, garnering a supportive response from the community and no involvement from workers on the OU dorm site.

“We’ve had a very positive response from (passersby) and students,” said a union member who identified himself only as Luis. “We really appreciate the support.”