Jay Bradshaw, director of organizing for the carpenters’ council representing Factory OS workers, said that would be impractical. Think back to that first station, where four people worked above and below the floor. In Mr. Mazzola’s world, a plumbers’ union would represent the workers installing pipes, while other unions would represent the workers up top.
“It would never work to have upward of 10 or 15 labor organizations at a single employer in a factory setting,” Mr. Bradshaw said.
For Mr. Bradshaw, the real fight isn’t defending job titles but making sure construction workers remain part of a union at all. A short drive from Factory OS, at a carpenters’ training center, the union is developing a program to train housing-factory workers — something that, it hopes, will prepare more people for an industry that it has come to see as inevitable.
“It sure blows the hell out of building in China,” he said.
