Labor leaders in Columbus are calling on the Columbus Regional Airport Authority to sign labor agreements ensuring local and diverse hiring practices and fair wages on the $2 billion project to build a new airport terminal.
Members with the Columbus Building Trades Council and other labor unions are asking the Columbus Airport Authority to use a project labor agreement for the new airport terminal at John Glenn International Airport planned to open by 2029. Several members of local and state union groups and Columbus City Council member Rob Dorans met at the Sheet Metal Workers International Association Local 24 Tuesday afternoon before a CRAA board meeting at John Glenn Columbus International Airport (CMH).
The Columbus Building Trades Council's executive secretary-treasurer Dorsey Hager said the type of agreement they are seeking, also known as a community benefit agreement, ensures workers earn industry standard payment, plus benefits in addition to commitments to hire local workers, women and people of color.
"Every day that they waste not agreeing to a project labor agreement is a day that they can't partner with the Columbus building trades. Let's talk about schedules to talk about contract first rate participation. Talk about workforce demands, talk about retention, and also to talk about workforce development programs," Hager said.
Mike Knisely, the executive secretary-treasurer with the Ohio State Building Trades Council, echoed this and said these agreements ensure workers have access to quality health care and are paid retirement benefits.
The CRAA announced the future construction of the new $2 billion airport terminal in August to replace the 65-year-old airport terminal at CMH.
Renderings show a terminal in a similar layout to the current one with gates for multiple planes. It would go in the current location of the Blue and Cell Phone Parking Lots, adjacent to the existing Rental Car Center. A new parking garage would go next to the rental car center.
The CRAA said in a statement it will ensure all labor on the new CMH terminal project earns prevailing wages, but has not committed to signing such an agreement.
"The Columbus Regional Airport Authority supports policies that benefit the community, which includes working with underrepresented businesses and supporting local workers, including unionized labor," the statement said.
At the meeting, several labor leaders and workers spoke before the board. The CRAA's President & CEO Joseph Nardone and board members declined to comment at the meeting.
Hager told WOSU any business or entity can claim they are going to pay the area standard wages, but with no enforcement on the issue, he questioned what will ensure that contractors actually do so. He and other speakers said contractors could theoretically underpay workers as low as the state minimum wage of $10.45 an hour for non-tipped workers.
"If they're intending on paying industry standards, they might as well go ahead and agree to a collective bargaining or to a community benefit agreement to make sure that we do outreach and that everybody participates and everybody gets a chance at that economic development," Hager said.
The CRAA statement also said its project construction manager Hensel Phelps will have a 25% participation goal among disadvantaged businesses, which it said will equal about $400 million worth of contracts for underrepresented businesses including small, local, minority, women and veteran-owned firms.
"The project team is dedicated to continuing good faith dialogue with the Trades Council and any other community group in order to achieve the project’s inclusion goals," the statement said.
The three Franklin County Commissioners, Dorans and City Council President Shannon Hardin authored two separate letters to the CRAA touting the benefits of a project labor agreement. Dorans was more direct in calling for their use at the union hall.
"It's time for the airport authority and its leadership to recognize that fact and sit down immediately. Serious discussions with the Columbus building trades and able ACP and every community group that has an interest in making sure that this project does more than just build a new terminal. It builds families," Dorans said.
Hager and the other labor leaders cited several examples of large projects across the private and public sector in central Ohio that have used PLAs. These include projects as small as the $32 million Linden Rec Center to the two largest private sector projects in Ohio history being built for Intel and Honda.
Hager said the CMH project contractor Hensel Phelps also used this type of agreement for airport projects in Seattle and Los Angeles.
The CRAA board took no action Tuesday to put forward a project labor agreement. Construction isn't planned to begin on the new terminal until next year.
