(JAMESTOWN, NEW YORK) – After a 10-year-long effort to get a representative of Organized Labor named to the Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency’s (CCIDA) Board of Directors, it has finally happened with Southwestern New York Building & Construction Trades Council President Steve Thorpe (Pictured Above/Photo Courtesy of Steve Thorpe) being announced as its newest member.

CCIDA Executive George Borrello recently made the announcement to Chautauqua County Labor Leaders at a Democratic Party Dinner, who were “pleasantly surprised,” David Wilkinson, the Business Manager of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 106 - who also serves as President of the Jamestown AFL-CIO Central Labor Council and is a key player with the Chautauqua Labor Coalition (which combines the force of both the Jamestown Labor Council and the Dunkirk AFL-CIO Central Labor Council), told WNYLaborToday.com.

“We’re ‘very pleased.’  ‘This is a huge accomplishment.’  ‘I’m confident Steve will be a huge asset,’” Wilkinson told Your On-Line Labor Newspaper, adding that the last Labor Representative to have a seat at the CCIDA table was United Auto Workers (UAW) Official Mike Piazza a decade ago. 

“Labor ‘has always felt this was very important and that we needed to get our voice at that (CCIDA) table.’  ‘I made the recommendation Steve be that appointee because he and his Union represents both Construction Workers and Manufacturing Workers, which has and continues to provide him with a unique business sense.’  He ‘understands both sides.’  Steve ‘also has an understanding that hiring Local Workers on projects that are funded with taxpayer dollars is very important, so we’re not giving our money away.’  He’ll ‘make sure the rules and by-laws are followed,’” Wilkinson said.

The 48-year-old Thorpe - who wears “more than one hat,” serving for the past 13 years as Business Representative for SMART (Sheet Metal Air Rail and Transportation) Local 112 and as President of the Southwestern New York Building & Construction Trades Council (which helps to promote Union Construction and Apprenticeship opportunities through Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegany Counties) - tells WNYLaborToday.com he “didn’t see (the IDA Board appointment) coming.”

“I ‘haven’t been involved in one of their meetings as yet,’ (but when he does) I want to know if there is ‘real’ accountability on job creation.  I ‘want to know if the jobs are real.’  ‘I see what it’s like for a guy to try to make a living off one wage.’  ‘I want to make sure’ that the Workers – ‘Union or not’ - ‘are treated right and get decent wages and benefits.’  ‘I want to make sure funded projects are led away’ from ‘Walmart wages’ - ‘paying people less while using government funds.’  ‘I want people to grow a set and go back and get your money’ (if a company doesn’t make good on their job creation promises).  ‘We can’t just let them slide.’”

Case in point, Thorpe points out, is $800,000 in CCIDA funding for a project that occurred in Falconer where the Board allowed the company to “skip out on their loan” after selling the business to another entity.  “(The CCIDA just) wrote it off,” he said.

Thorpe, who’s been a Union Member - and also a Training Instructor, with SMART Local 112 for the past 29 years and a Business Representatives since 2005, is looking forward to “starting fresh” with the other CCIDA Board Members and “work with them.”  

“But I ‘want to make sure people are making a good living’ (via being employed on CCIDA-funded projects,” he said.

And, the Labor appointment to the CCIDA Board has not gone unnoticed.

In an editorial, The Dunkirk Observer wrote: It has been quite a while since Labor has been represented on the IDA Board.  IDA Executive George Borrello’s appointment makes sense, while bringing a different set of view to an evolving agency.  Labor is an important ingredient to future development in this county and it is also a step to have more voices at the table.