Painters Keep Wall Work But Blast 'Raid' Tactics.

Relations between union painters and carpenters have soured again as the two trades contest the right to represent workers who perform wall finishing work, most recently in Iowa and Nebraska. The international painters' union claims it successfully fended off the international carpenters' union in three recent votes at small drywall firms in Des Moines and Omaha, with two more elections set July 22 in Ankeny, Iowa, and again in Omaha. The contests put a dent in what had seemed to be improved relations between the internationals and their leaders, painters' union President James A. Williams and carpenters' President Douglas McCarron.