Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 9, 1990 TAG: 9004090406
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER MUNICIPAL WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
F.N. Thompson Co. of Charlotte will hire many workers in the Roanoke Valley when it constructs the high-rise office building at Jefferson Street and Salem Avenue, said Bill Caldwell, the company's executive vice president.
Caldwell said he expects that most subcontractors on the project will come from Virginia, including some from the Roanoke Valley, as well as from Richmond and other areas.
Leaders of several building construction unions in the Roanoke Valley and Southwest Virginia told City Council last week they fear that Thompson will use mostly out-of-state workers.
James Wright, business representative for United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, Local 319, estimated that up to 85 percent of the construction workers on Henry Faison's building will come from outside Virginia.
The union leaders showed a 20-minute video on a national campaign by several unions protesting BE&K, an Alabama-based company. They said the Thompson company is owned by BE&K.
The video portrayed BE&K as a union-busting and strike-breaking company that pays low wages and has a history of hazardous working conditions that have sparked protests in several cities.
The video included a reference to paper mill workers protesting the hiring of BE&K for a construction project at the Westvaco plant in Covington two years ago. Labor union leaders in Covington distributed handbills and took out a full-page advertisement in a newspaper to protest what they described as BE&K's anti-union attitude.
"We don't see how this will help boost Roanoke's economy if workers come in from out of state, take their money and leave," Wright told council.
BE&K acquired a minority interest in F.N. Thompson about six months ago, but the contracting company's management has remained the same as before, Caldwell said.
"We are still run by the same people. BE&K doesn't have any people in this organization. We can do our own thing," he said.
Caldwell said he was puzzled that building construction unions would "pick on us" because of the BE&K connection. "They've never said anything to us about it."
The Thompson company was founded more than 100 years ago and has done work in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
"We are an old, old company, and in all cities we have gone, we have been good citizens," Caldwell said. BE&K is a "totally different company" that works mostly in the paper mill industry, he said.
Caldwell wouldn't estimate the percentage of workers that would be hired locally during the construction of Faison's building, but he said the company has a history of hiring many local workers on construction projects.
City Council members watched the video and listened to the unions' complaints, but took no action because the city wasn't involved in the selection of the contractor for Faison's building.
Don Fitzgerald, a representative for the Plumbers and Steam Fitters, Local 491, said the union members are concerned that Thompson Co. was chosen as the general contractor without competitive bids.
But Tony Skillbeck, a vice president for Faison & Associates in Charlotte, said Thompson was chosen after a "selective bidding process."
Faison talked with several contractors and chose Thompson after obtaining bids from three companies, Skillbeck said. Thompson has constructed other buildings for Faison.
Wright asked council how the city could spend millions of dollars for parking facilities in the proposed building without competitive bidding.
City Attorney Wilburn Dibling said the city isn't required to seek bids on the project because it doesn't have a contract with Thompson or any subcontractors. Dibling said the city will buy the parking facilities from Faison after the building has been finished.
by CNB