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Union protests against contractor's hiring practices
By Brennan Umthun/MVM News Network
FORT MADISON - When state and local funds help expand your business, is it too much to ask that local workers receive the jobs? Local 150 of the International Union of Operating Engineers believes that to be self evident.
In the heart of the wind belt, Fort Madison offers Siemens a helping hand in achieving its goal of cornering the wind power market, not only affording it a location central to its transportation needs, but by giving it an incentive package worth approximately $5 million to assist it in its growth and keep them satisfied.
That package, in itself, is a gorgeous thing. Couple that with the almost $5 million that the Iowa Economic Development Board ponied up, and you have yourself something extraordinary.
However, Local 150 feels a bit slighted, and for the last two weeks, has been picketing Corporate Contractors Inc. (CCI), a general contracting company based in Beloit, Wis., that is in charge of the Siemens expansion.
“We want local contractors working on this project,” said Local 150 business representative Ryan Drew. “This is a great local project that has an estimated cost of $33 million. And about $10 million of that is funded by city, county and state incentives.”
The current Siemens expansion project is expected to foster upward of 287 jobs from a 75,000-square- foot expansion of its already 311,000-square-foot facility. In addition to adding on, Siemens plans to build a new 125,000-square-foot facility and a rail yard to better equip itself in the production and transportation of its wind turbine blades. The project was slated for completion by October of this year.
Drew said that with Siemens hiring CCI, there are but a few local workers getting paid from the project., meaning, few of those dollars get spent in Lee County.
Calls made to CCI's corporate office were not returned as of press time today.
“I believe they have four local electricians working in there and a few local plumbers,” Drew said. “But we would like to see local general contractors and subcontractors landing these local jobs.”
Drew added these construction jobs are work that can't be outsourced because they are in our own back yard ... they can't possibly be sent overseas.
“Local money is helping fund this project. They should be using local operators,” he said. “If the work is done by a local worker, statistics show that that money goes around seven times within the community... if that money goes to Wisconsin, we won't see any of it here.”
Drew said that last year the Local 150 Union provided Siemens with a list of local contractors who could be used in future projects.
“We wanted to let them know who the area contractors are so they could use them,” he said. “There will be a significant amount of work done on this rail yard as well. We'd like to see some local operators and workers in there.”
Drew said that out of the six contractors they have working on the project, only three of them are registered to do work in the state of Iowa.
In the heart of the wind belt, Fort Madison offers Siemens a helping hand in achieving its goal of cornering the wind power market, not only affording it a location central to its transportation needs, but by giving it an incentive package worth approximately $5 million to assist it in its growth and keep them satisfied.
That package, in itself, is a gorgeous thing. Couple that with the almost $5 million that the Iowa Economic Development Board ponied up, and you have yourself something extraordinary.
However, Local 150 feels a bit slighted, and for the last two weeks, has been picketing Corporate Contractors Inc. (CCI), a general contracting company based in Beloit, Wis., that is in charge of the Siemens expansion.
“We want local contractors working on this project,” said Local 150 business representative Ryan Drew. “This is a great local project that has an estimated cost of $33 million. And about $10 million of that is funded by city, county and state incentives.”
The current Siemens expansion project is expected to foster upward of 287 jobs from a 75,000-square- foot expansion of its already 311,000-square-foot facility. In addition to adding on, Siemens plans to build a new 125,000-square-foot facility and a rail yard to better equip itself in the production and transportation of its wind turbine blades. The project was slated for completion by October of this year.
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Calls made to CCI's corporate office were not returned as of press time today.
“I believe they have four local electricians working in there and a few local plumbers,” Drew said. “But we would like to see local general contractors and subcontractors landing these local jobs.”
Drew added these construction jobs are work that can't be outsourced because they are in our own back yard ... they can't possibly be sent overseas.
“Local money is helping fund this project. They should be using local operators,” he said. “If the work is done by a local worker, statistics show that that money goes around seven times within the community... if that money goes to Wisconsin, we won't see any of it here.”
Drew said that last year the Local 150 Union provided Siemens with a list of local contractors who could be used in future projects.
“We wanted to let them know who the area contractors are so they could use them,” he said. “There will be a significant amount of work done on this rail yard as well. We'd like to see some local operators and workers in there.”
Drew said that out of the six contractors they have working on the project, only three of them are registered to do work in the state of Iowa.
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Unions are their own worst enemies wrote on Jul 2, 2008 9:08 PM: