SOUTH POINT – The Ohio & Vicinity Regional Council of Carpenters staged a protest on the front lawn of the South Point Bob Evans Wednesday - in an effort to raise public awareness and make a change in the corporation's building policy.

The banner read &#8220Shame on Bob Evans.” Representatives from four crafts: carpenters, sheet metal workers, bricklayers and millwrights - all part of the building trade - handed out literature asking residents to support area restaurants that support the local business trade, and not to patronize Bob Evans. These representatives represent hundreds of people from this area.

&#8220This is a statewide effort, we are bannering daily at the corporate office in Columbus,” Ohio and Vicinity Regional Council of Carpenters organizer Mark Johnson said. &#8220We're trying to be peaceful abiding citizens and this is a peaceful protest.”

The issue, according to Johnson, is the use of 1099 workers by the Bob Evans Corporation in their building projects. These 1099 workers are considered sub contractors; the name comes out of the Internal Revenue Service's 1099 form.

&#8220I haven't talked to one of them that make the area standard pay,” he said.

Johnson also pointed out that these workers have no healthcare or retirement plan. He said that the healthcare problem in our country is getting worse and this is a prime example.

Johnson said their view is instead of going after the contractors themselves - they are going to go after the user, which happens to be Bob Evans. The goal for Wednesday was to make the public aware, but, Johnson said, the ultimate goal is to change the corporate policy.

&#8220When they employ local workers, the money goes back into the community and circulates, when they employ an out -of-state worker, that money leaves for good,” Donald L. Stiltner, business representative for the Sheet Metal Workers International Association, Local Union #24 said.

A spokesperson for Bob Evans could not be reached for comment on the labor dispute.