WNYLaborToday.com Editor’s Note: Pictured above, several signs sit in the wings waiting for the Members of Rochester Building & Construction Trades Council’s affiliated Unions to pick up and march as frustration mounts over the lack of Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) on taxpayer-funded construction projects in The Flower City - and the stance taken by a number of Elected Officials, which has opened the door for a number of out of town Workers to take away good-paying jobs that Trades Officials say should be filled by local Workers, including People of Color and Women.   (Photo Courtesy Of The Rochester Building & Construction Trades Council)

(ROCHESTER, NEW YORK) – You can understand the mounting frustration of the Rochester Building & Construction Trades Council as its Leaders look to the West and see a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) on the new Buffalo Bills Stadium that’s being built in Orchard Park and then to the East where a major CHIPS Plant will be built outside Syracuse while dozens of out-of-town license plates can be found in the parking lots of area construction projects where good-paying jobs have been taken away from local residents, including People of Color and Women.

And that frustration, Rochester Trades Council President Grant Malone tells WNYLaborToday.com, could boil over to the point where it creates “Labor unrest” should local, county, State and Federally Elected Officials continue to ignore the use of PLAs on local projects that would ensure those jobs are filled by local people.

“Our ‘frustration comes because everyone’ (Elected Officials at all levels) ‘talks a big game’,” Grant Malone - who serves as President of the Rochester Building Trades, whose 15 Member Unions combine to represent 11,000 Unionized Construction Workers in the Rochester area, tells WNYLaborToday.com.

Malone, who also serves as District Manager of International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 158, continued: “We have ‘astronomical levels of crime and poverty (in the City)’ and we (the Building Trades) are giving (Elected Officials) avenues ‘to help them’ (with those problems), ‘give them the opportunity to put (local) people to work and give them a better way of life.’  ‘Now look, I love the Mayor (of Rochester) and I’ve had discussions with him on ways the Building Trades can help the City fix our crime and poverty problems - but you have to make sure the work has local people, including those from the Trades, working on them.’  ‘But when it comes down to it, (those Electeds) don’t hold up their part of the bargain.’  ‘Without PLAs there’s no Community Workforces Agreements and no opportunities for local people, including’ Minorities.  ‘They’re just blowing us off.’”

Troy Milne serves as Rochester Building Trades Recording Secretary and is Business Manager/Financial Secretary at Sheet Metal Workers Local 46.  He’s served for the past seven years on a Labor seat at the Monroe County Industrial Development Agency (IDA), which funds a multitude of local projects with taxpayer dollars that have gone without PLAs in the past.

Milne, like Malone, had no problem expressing his frustrations when speaking to WNYLaborToday.com: “It’s a ‘struggle to get any’ PLAs.  ‘Why was there one on the new Bills Stadium?’  ‘And another on the Syracuse CHIPS Plant?’  ‘I know (Rochester) isn’t Buffalo or Syracuse, but things have got to change.’  ‘Why are we continued to be overlooked?’  ‘I do not feel as though we are being represented’ (by the Elected Officials the Trades endorse and make political contributions to).  ‘The proof in the pudding is that we can’t get’ PLAs.  ‘It’s time (Elected Officials) work with us to make sure there is (100%) local Labor on our projects.’  (The Trades) ‘cannot continue to train people if there are no jobs to go to’ (at the end of Apprenticeship Training).  ‘We only can if we have the jobs - and people here in Rochester want to go to work for the fair wages Union-represented Workers are paid.’”

“‘I feel like we are the bastard stepchild here in Western New York,’” Malone added, “because there’s been over a ($1 billion) in economic development here during the past three years ‘and we can’t get a PLA on any of them.’  ‘How in the hell do you think you are going to put local people to work if you don’t have’ PLAs, ‘which guarantee the hiring of local Workers and ensure a solid percentage of the workforce are People of Color and Women?’”

Malone and Milne specifically pointed to three projects during WNYLaborToday.com’s interviews: Li-Cycle, a Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Company, which has been awarded a $375 million U.S. Department of Energy loan for the company’s facility in Rochester.  It is expected to create 270 jobs once completed and more than 1,000 construction jobs. (For More, Go To: www.rochesterfirst.com/news/business/li-cycle-to-hold-event-regarding-rochester-hub-facility/); The two-million-plus-square-foot, $142 million Amazon Warehouse and Distribution Facility in Suburban Gates, which is expected to open by mid-Summer (For More, Go To: www.rochesterfirst.com/development/multi-million-square-foot-amazon-facility-under-construction-in-town-of-gates/); and Coca-Cola’s $650 million Fairlife Brand Production Facility in Monroe County (For More, Go To: spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/rochester/business/2023/05/09/coca-cola-to-build--650m-fairlife-production-facility-in-monroe-county).

“I met with Li-Cycle ‘two years ago’ to discuss the benefits of a PLA with the Rochester Building Trades, ‘during which I stressed how important to keep the workforce local.’  ‘I was unsuccessful,’” Malone said.  “‘We were also unsuccessful (in securing a PLA) at the Amazon Project, which got county money.’  In regards to Fairlife, ‘all I got back from our contact at the Governor’s Office when we asked for a meeting was, I’m working on it.’”

Added Milne: “I voted ‘no’ on the Amazon Project (at the Monroe County IDA).  ‘I get it that the project will create (1,200 jobs), but I’m fighting for (1,200 construction jobs).’  At Li-Cycle, I ‘called every single Politician’ because that project was creating (320) construction jobs.  One of them said, ‘You might have to dust off the (Trades’ inflatable) rat.’  Regarding Fairlife, ‘there were no prior conversations with the Trades’ (about using local Workers).  ‘How they are going to build this facility?’  ‘I don’t know - good luck.’”

It's bad enough Trades Representatives feel like the fill-in-the blank stepchild in the room, but it’s made even worse when a horde of out of town Workers - with their states’ license plates announcing their arrival (including Florida, Kentucky, Texas and Virginia), can be seen while touring some of the current and on-going construction projects across the Rochester Region.

Their anger is multiplied when they discuss the great need to replenish the local Construction Workforce by training young people - including those in Rochester’s Minority Communities and Women who might be interested in pursing a career in the Unionized Building Trades.

And the Trades Reps WNYLaborToday.com spoke to are not happy with just the promise of meetings or of scheduled meetings that will be held, including one with Monroe County.

“‘I’m tired of being told (the Trades) came late to the party (with the offer of PLAs) because you know who gets the work,’” Milne said. “‘Why can’t the Governor (Kathy Hochul) come in and publicly say that on any (State-fund project) there will be a PLA?’”

Malone went a step further: “I ‘can’t get anyone from the Governor’s Office to call me back.’  (She) used to be our Congresswoman.  ‘Now there’s talk of a casino being built in our region and no one’ from the Governor’s Office ‘has called us’ (the Trades).  ‘We just want our fair shake.’”

When Andrew Cuomo was Governor, Milne said he was told the Governor didn’t think there were any Labor problems in Rochester because “there was no Labor unrest.”

Said Malone: “There’s an ‘astronomical amount of Workers from out of town who are working on our’ projects.  ‘If we don’t get an opportunity on these projects, there will be Labor unrest.’”