(PEMBROKE, NEW YORK) – It was a good question to ask Randy C. Reeves, The Trump Administration’s appointed Veteran Affairs’ (VA) Undersecretary for Memorial Affairs: Where will you get those highly-skilled Vets needed to help build a build a new $30 million-plus National Veterans Cemetery in Genesee County?

But what several Buffalo Building & Construction Trades Council Union Representatives, who attended a recently-held meeting that was arranged by U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, got back from Reeves - who’d traveled from Washington, D.C. to Pembroke, was: “Why am I here?”

And that, in a nutshell, is why the Buffalo Building Trades are fearful that a number of highly-qualified and highly-skilled Veterans who are now working in Construction just might get shut out of a job that many of them view as one of the highest honors that they could ever be involved in: Building a final resting place and a place of honor for their fellow Veterans.

“(Reeves) ‘only met with us because of’ Senator Schumer,” International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 17 Business Manager Gary Swain tells WNYLaborToday.com, “and his opening line was, ‘Why am I here.’  (Of course) He ‘knew why,’ but ‘he had no interest’ in speaking (with the assembled Representatives of the Buffalo Building Trades Council).”

Trades Reps told WNYLaborToday.com they did not walk away with a “good feeling” after asking the Trump-Appointed VA Memorial Affairs Undersecretary where its designated contractor will get highly-skilled Vets to help build the new National Veterans Cemetery In Genesee County here in Western New York.

The Trades were hoping to discuss with Reeves the possibility of the project adopting a Project Labor Agreement (PLA), which would include a cost-savings by using a mix of Apprentices and Journeymen, a stream of highly-qualified and trained Workers and guarantee the use of local and area residents, Women and Minorities - as well as qualified Veterans.

Bricklayers Local 3 Business Manager Rick Williams was also in attendance to represent the 18 affiliated Member Unions of the Buffalo Building Trades.  Trades President Paul Brown and a representative of the New York Helmets for Hardhats Organization (which works with the Unionized Trades to help Post 9/11 Veterans transition into careers in the Building Trades) also attended the meeting.

Williamson told Your On-Line Labor Newspaper: “(Reeves) didn’t want to hear about that (how PLAs help place Veterans in Construction jobs).  He ‘did not say how’ the contractors would ‘enforce’ it (making sure local Veterans are hired on the project).  ‘All we were asking for is a level playing field, but (it appeared that Reeves) didn’t like to be told what to do’ (about the Vets Cemetery Project and its hiring practices).’  ‘We thought we were being helpful.’”   

The Western New York National Cemetery will be constructed on Indian Falls Road in Pembroke, with access off of Exit 48A from the I-90 State Thruway.  It will be built in two phases and is slated to open in 2020.  It will serve the burial needs of more than 96,000 Veterans for the next 70 years and will be the seventh VA National Cemetery in New York State on the VA finalized acquisition of a 60-acre parcel and a 77-acre parcel in February 2018.  The project will reportedly include construction of an administration building and two shelters, which will be used to conduct final ceremonies for Veterans before burial.  A maintenance building and a columbarium, where urns containing the cremains of veterans will be stored, will also be built.

Schumer recently announced the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) had awarded a $23.3 million contract to a company in Victor to begin construction on Phase 1A of the Western New York National Veterans Cemetery.  Global Urban Enterprise in Victor, New York is partnering with Syracuse-based Hueber-Breuer Construction, along with other subcontractors to do the work.  Today (Wednesday, December 18th), the Federal Government announced that another $10 million has been made available for the project.

Schumer said the establishment of the Genesee County Veterans Cemetery will be the first and only of its kind in the Buffalo-Rochester area, and will save thousands of military families from having to travel more than 100 miles in some cases to visit their loved ones at what is now the closest Veterans' Cemetery in Bath.  The five VA National Cemeteries in New York are: Bath; Woodlawn in Elmira; Gerald B. Solomon Saratoga in Schuylerville; Calverton in Calverton; and Long Island in Farmingdale.  The Cypress Hills National Cemetery in Brooklyn is closed to new interments.  There are no New York State Veterans Cemeteries.

Schumer reportedly made the case for Organized Labor's involvement in the project in a November 19th letter to Veterans Secretary Robert Wilkie, writing: "Aside from providing work for local Western New Yorkers, a (PLA) provides additional structure, professionalism, productivity and stability to Federal Construction Projects and thus promotes the successful and expeditious completion of construction projects like this one."

A PLA “should be nothing new” to the VA, since “every Federal monument” in Washington, D.C. has been built under a PLA, the Bricklayers’ Williamson told WNYLaborToday.com.

“The Veterans Cemetery is a ‘monument too, so why not (use a PLA) this time?’  And, Unions have the ‘best ability to make sure qualified and highly-skilled Veterans are used on the project.’  ‘We are the ones promoting skilled Vets (in the Construction Industry),’” he said.

For the IUOE, the project would mean putting to work “eight to ten Operators,” Local 17 Business Manager Swain told WNYLaborToday.com. 

“It’s a ‘pretty big dirt job’ for us,” he continued, “and we would be putting to work our (Union Member) Vets - ‘so why can’t they build it for their Brothers?’”

However, Swain also told WNYLaborToday.com that he was “not optimistic” the situation can be turned around in Pembroke, but underscored the fact the Trades will keep a watchful eye on the project as it progresses to make sure it employs local Workers - instead of allowing subcontractors to bring in Workers from across the country - and local Veterans.

“This (Trump) Administration tells (Unions and its Members) that it is ‘Pro-Union,’ but they are ‘so Anti-Union that it is pathetic,’” Swain said.  “Trump has hired Union Contractors and Union Members in the past (for work that has been done on his casinos and golf courses) ‘and never paid them’ (for the work that was done).”

Williamson, meanwhile, also underscored the fact that Global Urban Enterprise and Hueber-Breuer Construction should make sure that they do their homework when it comes to subcontractors who may portray themselves as Veteran-owned. 

“In Erie County, a firm named Zoladz ‘pawned themselves off’ as a ‘Veteran’ company,” reminded Williamson, referring to Zoladz Construction, which paid a settlement in 2017 to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for violating the False Claims Act and was fined by the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) after an investigation following the death of an Employee.  The DOJ settlement came after Federal Prosecutors said the company was one of two that improperly obtained contracts set aside for “Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses,” DOJ officials said at the time.

(WNYLaborToday.com Editor’s Note: For More, Read: Proposed Niagara County Law ‘Would Allow Disqualification’ Of The Lowest Bidder For Public Contracts, ‘If The Respondent Is Deemed An Irresponsible Company’ At www.wnylabortoday.com/news/2019/09/24/buffalo-and-western-new-york-labor-news/proposed-niagara-county-law-would-allow-disqualification-of-the-lowest-bidder-for-public-contracts-if-the-respondent-is-deemed-an-irresponsible-company/)

On another front, Williamson suggested to Your On-Line Labor Newspaper that the Batavia Vets Cemetery situation could become a teachable moment for Union Construction Workers, many of whom voted for Republican President Donald Trump in 2016 and who plan to vote for him again in 2020 – despite the fact that what the Trump Administration publicly says isn’t the way they act in the end.

“(Unions) ‘always strive to educate our Members and not to tell them who to vote for,’” Williamson said.  “We tell our Members ‘to look at a candidate and the way they vote’ - on PLAs, Prevailing Wages, Apprenticeship Programs, Infrastructure and Pensions - ‘and then, you decide.’” 

For More On This Labor News Story, Go To: www.thedailynewsonline.com/bdn01/national-cemetery-in-pembroke-to-open-in-2020-20190605 And The Buffalo News At: https://buffalonews.com/2019/12/09/labor-issues-could-plague-vets-cemetery/