Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 24, 1992 TAG: 9203240120
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY BUSINESS EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"Our point is local jobs for local workers," said James Wright, business agent of Carpenters Local 219. "We never argued for local contractors," he said.
Wright and other members of Southwestern Virginia Building and Construction Trades Council meeting Monday said they don't intend to beat a dead issue, but they don't want hotel construction to go the same way as the office tower.
The union leaders claim they didn't have a chance to bid on the $40 million tower because Faison Associates, the project's Charlotte, N.C., developer, worked with a closed list of contractors. Faison last week was named by the hotel's owner, Virginia Tech Foundation, as developer to renovate the hotel and build an adjacent conference center. That project is estimated to cost $45 million.
When the time comes to bid on the hotel, "anyone will be allowed to bid as long as they're prequalified," said Tony Skillbeck, a Faison vice president. He said that means bidders will be selected in such areas as financial strength.
But to labor unions, "prequalified is another way of saying `We'll pick who we want,' " said Don Fitzgerald of Plumbers Union Local 491. Faison's one criterion for choosing bidders, he said, is "if you're union, you're out."
The Dominion Tower job "was negotiated in North Carolina. It never hit the street for bids," Fitzgerald said. "If you don't get in the batter's box, you won't be able to hit the ball," he added.
"Everybody was picked from the start. We never had a chance to bid. It looks like we got business for local contractors, not local people," Wright said.
The union leaders and the developers disagreed on the cost of union labor. Henry Faison last week said that guaranteeing union labor would raise the cost of renovating the hotel by 25 percent.
"I know our contractors can bid against non-union contractors, pay union wages and still be competitive," Wright said.
Walter Wise of Ironworkers Local 697 said the use of non-union labor when city funds were used on the Dominion Tower garage "was unconscionable to us. I don't think the city will use that back door again.
"We hope Faison will give everybody an equal opportunity to bid" on the hotel work "and let the competitive bids fall where they may," he said.
Wise, who is chairman of Roanoke Basic Trades Committee, said he asked Roanoke Valley contractors to discuss a way for union contractors to work on the hotel. But no one responded to his letter a year ago, he said.
A construction agreement opening the process to union contractors would provide the highest quality building for the best price and would guarantee fair wages and benefits for area tradesmen, he said.
In a separate letter to contractors, Wright said the council is opposed to hiring out-of-state and out-of-country workers on area jobs "when those skills can be found in many unemployed construction workers" locally.
Wright said the Hotel Roanoke project "will chart the course for the Roanoke Valley's future. It will also define the kind of life that a construction worker and his family can expect in this area."
The building trades unions have contacts with many contractors who would welcome a chance to bid on Roanoke projects, Wright said. "We're like a neglected asset. We're linked with hundreds of national contractors, some of them specialty contractors."
Memo: CORRECTION