Business in brief BANGOR: CARPENTERS GROUP PROTESTS MALL STORE

Two Maine carpenters stood Wednesday at the Hogan Road and Bangor Mall Boulevard intersection with a large sign reading: “If you knew Dick’s, you wouldn’t shop there,” to protest the sporting goods store’s contracting practices. Randy Evarts of Pittsfield and Mark Kittredge of Madison, members of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters, were distributing fliers accusing Dick’s Sporting Goods, located at the mall, of pocketing money at the expense of workers hired to build their facilities. “They use a company that exploits immigrant workers,” Brian Richardson, director of organizing at the New England Regional Council of Carpenters, said Wednesday. “They don’t have to pay them workman’s compensation, so there is a 30 percent savings for the contractor and obviously a savings for Dick’s at the expense of legitimate companies. We are asking people to not shop at Dick’s and to understand what their policies are.” Efforts to reach a representative from Dick’s Sporting Goods corporate office for comment on Wednesday were unsuccessful. Protests also were taking place in Augusta, Evarts said.