(BUFFALO, NEW YORK) – Unbeknownst to hundreds of people who cross Ellicott Street each day where the new John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital stands next to the neighboring Buffalo General Medical Center - a connecting tunnel lies beneath them that links the two facilities together.  And at one end of the tunnel there’s a unique plaque affixed to a wall that recognizes and congratulates each Member Union of the Buffalo Building & Construction Trades Council for a job more than well done.

WNYLaborToday.com recently had the opportunity to tour the 80-foot-long underground tunnel that lies 30 feet under Ellicott Street, compliments of Buffalo Building & Construction Trades Council President Paul Brown and Kaleida Health’s Director of Facilities, Peter Murphy.

The tunnel carries all utilities between the two medical facilities, including air conditioning, steam, water and high-voltage electrical, as well as tying into a nearby main power plant – which is located on nearby Goodrich Street. 

The now completed eight-month project allows an array of Physicians, Nurses, Dietary, Postal, Laundry and Maintenance Personnel to easily travel back and forth each and every day.

The tunnel project cost $3.5 million and produced an overall savings of more than $20 million, Kaleida Health’s Murphy told WNYLaborToday.com, in exchange for not having to build a new travel-way connecting the John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital and Buffalo General Medical Facility, as well as saving money in the rerouting of electrical and power lines and utilities.

But one can’t help but notice a plaque (Pictured Below/WNYLaborToday.com Photos) at one end of the tunnel that features the logo of the Buffalo Building & Construction Trades Council and reads as such: A Partner in Making the John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital a Reality.

Also etched on the transparent plaque are the names of each and every Buffalo Building Trades Member Union: Boilermakers Local 7; Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers Local 3; Cement Masons Local 111; Elevator Constructors Local 14; Heat & Frost Insulators Local 4; International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 41; Ironworkers Local 6; Labor Laborers Local 210; Millwrights Local 1163; Northeast Regional Council of Carpenters Local 276; International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 17; Painters, Glaziers & Tapers District Council 4; Plasterers Local 9; Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 22; Roofers Local 74; Sheet Metal Workers Local 71; Sprinkler Fitters Local 669; and Teamsters Local 449.

There are not many employers - notably Kaleida Health - across all of Western New York that have made a conscious decision and subsequent effort to publicly recognize Labor Unions and their Members, and the contributions they’ve made to their businesses. 

That’s why the decision made by Kaleida Health is even more important, as is the use of the word “partner” which is also etched on that plaque. 

In fact, a second congratulatory plaque (Pictured Below/WNYLaborToday.com Photos) is affixed to a wall in the first floor lobby of the Buffalo General Medical Center, which reads, in part: Buffalo General Medical Center… Proudly built by our own Kaleida Health employees… In partnership with Buffalo Building and Construction Trades Council.

“(It’s a) ‘very important’ partnership for our organization.  As you walk around our facilities, you can see the work (The Buffalo Building Trades and their Member Unions) have done over the years.  They are a ‘tangible part of our success.’  ‘Just as important, they have been extremely active’ in our fundraising efforts, whether that’s Children’s Hospital or HighPointe on Michigan.  So we ‘appreciate their teamwork and partnership’,” Kaleida Health President & CEO Jody Lomeo said.

Lomeo was referring to the Buffalo Building Trades-constructed and nearby 240,000-square-foot, multi-story, long-term Pediatric HighPointe Unit, which is located just a stone throw’s away from the John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital and Buffalo General Medical Center in Buffalo’s growing medical corridor.  WNYLaborToday.com reported in June of the Trades donating $30,000 to the HighPointe Facility - said to the “largest donation” the facility has ever received (www.wnylabortoday.com/news/2018/06/21/buffalo-and-western-new-york-labor-news/it-s-the-largest-donation-we-ve-ever-received-long-term-pediatric-highpointe-unit-in-buffalo-s-growing-medical-corridor-receives-30-000-from-the-buffalo-building-construction-trades-council/).  The HighPointe Facility takes care of 20 patients - age one to 21, who are all on ventilators. Trades Leaders were so moved by their conditions that the decision was made to make a sizable donation to HighPointe to expand and improve an adjacent outdoor playground so the young and incapacitated patients there “could do things regular kids do.”

In regards to making a decision to honor the Building Trades with a congratulatory plaque at one entrance of the tunnel, Lomeo said: “It’s ‘important for us to recognize’ our workforce.  We ‘always want to say thank you.’ Whether it’s our Nurses at the bedside or the Laborers who help build out our facilities, ‘we truly believe that our employees are our number one asset.’”

(WNYLaborToday.com Editor’s Note: Kaleida Health has made it a habit of recognizing their Union-represented Employees who work inside their Downtown Buffalo Medical Facilities.  In fact, Kaleida has two Direct Link Banner Ads on WNYLaborToday.com’s Front Page, one congratulating the Building Trades for constructing the John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital and the other recognizing its Communications Workers of America (CWA), Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and IUOE-represented Employees.)

Kaleida Health’s Director of Facilities Murphy (Pictured Below on the right next to Buffalo Building Trades President Paul Brown/WNYLaborToday.com Photos) told WNYLaborToday.com the Building Trades “did a very good job” on the tunnel project.  “I ‘marveled at the professionalism’ of these guys,” he said, explaining the work also required the physical relocation of electrical duct work and the construction of two new elevators. 

“Kaleida ‘does not consider’ the Building Trades (and the Workers they represent as contracted) employees.  They are our ‘partners’ and ‘their work is impeccable,’” he said.

In regards to the tunnel that connects the John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital to the Buffalo General Medical Center, Kaleida Health President & CEO Lomeo said: “It was a ‘strategic’ project ‘that probably didn’t get a ton of recognition, but it is extremely important to the operations of both’ Oishei and Buffalo General hospitals.  The investment from (New York) State ‘helped us save millions so we did not have to duplicate a lot of the behind the scenes functions that help make a hospital tick.’  It was a ‘seamless process’ when coming back and forth between the two sites.”

Buffalo Building Trades President Brown, meanwhile, told Your On-Line Labor Newspaper that “Kaleida is the ‘best partner’ the Building Trades has (in Buffalo).”

 “They are ‘indescribable.’  We’ve ‘never had a plaque erected like this before, naming each and every Member Union’ of the Trades Council,” “Pete (Murphy, Kaleida Health’s Director of Facilities) is the ‘key.’  If he ‘brought us a change order that cost too much’ and (the Trades) ‘could save’ Kaleida ‘some money, and he asked us to do something, we ran with it and did it.’  ‘That’s why this all works.’  And all this work was done in the Winter ‘without any’ power outages - ‘period,’” Brown told WNYLaborToday.com.

And it’s not just the tunnel project that Kaleida Health Director of Facilities Murphy has overseen with building help provided by the Buffalo Building Trades Council.  He rattled off several major Kaleida construction projects located within Buffalo’s Medical Corridor and at Kaleida’s Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital in Amherst. 

Combined, he said the overall cost of investment was “nearly one billion dollars.”

“That’s an ‘astronomical’ amount,” Building Trades President Brown chimed in.

“A lot of companies don’t want to do this kind of thing (publicly recognize the good work done for them by the Buffalo Building Trades),” said Brown, adding - “It’s good to see they have a set of balls (enough internal wherewithal to recognize a Union entity).”

A Member of IBEW Local 41, Tom Tiedemann (Pictured Below on the right next to Buffalo Trades President Paul Brown/WNYLaborToday.com Photos) - who is employed by Ferguson Electric, a local Union Contractor and who was working at the Buffalo General Medical Center project, also walked with WNYLaborToday.com on the tour. 

“I ‘love this’ - it’s ‘nice seeing (the plaque) and makes you proud that you’re being noticed’ (for your work),” he said.