WORKPLACE ISSUES

Duel Over Drywallers: The painters union will hold a press conference in San Diego today that promises to be the first official shot in a battle over who will represent Southern California’s residential drywall workers.

The carpenters union, meanwhile, has signed contracts with more than 50 of the bigger drywall contractors outside San Diego and says it has enlisted 2,200 workers as union members.

But the carpenters have yet to crack San Diego, and their organizing drive has bogged down there in a series of lawsuits between the union and the subcontractors. So the rival painters union is now wooing the workers. (Drywall workers erect the plasterboard that makes up the interior walls of buildings.)

The painters union concedes that most of the big residential drywall subcontractors outside San Diego have already signed contracts with the carpenters and seem to be backing off a bit from challenging the carpenters beyond San Diego.

“There are still some small subcontractors outside San Diego to represent,” said John A. Perez, a painters spokesman. “But, yes, many of the big ones have already been signed up by the carpenters.”

At least six drywall workers in San Diego will commence a hunger strike at the press conference, Perez said.