BY JILL NAGY AND R.J. DELUKE
Construction workers in the region are
finding plenty of work and modest increases in
wages as the business recovers from a “rough
winter,” according to Jeff Stark, president
of the Greater Capital Region Building and
Construction Trades Council, an AFL-CIO
union representing some 22,000 workers.
Most of the trades, he said, are at or near full
employment.
“We’re pretty content,” Stark said. “Who
doesn’t want good wages and benefits?”
He estimated that union workers earn 20-
30 percent more than non-union workers and
enjoy health insurance, retirement benefits
and other types of insurance jointly paid for
by the union and employers.
“Right now, we are doing pretty well,” he
said.
Another major union in the region, Plumbers
and Steamfitters, Local 773 based at Tech
Meadows business park near Northway Exit
18, is also experiencing good times.
Scott Martel, local business agent, said his
union workers have been very busy in the last
few years, mostly due to GlobalFoundaries in
Malta and all the construction activity that
continues to go on there.
“We have 2,000 plumbers and pipefitters on
that job alone,” he said.
For employers, the extra money paid in
wages and benefits means more efficient and
better-trained workers who end up costing
contractors less in the long run, according
to Stark.
“We build more efficiently and we’re better
at it,” he said. “We don’t let a guy on the job
without skills.”
He said union workers spend four or five
years as apprentices in a formal program of
instruction and mentoring by skilled journeymen
and are required to pass a series
of exams before they are ready to work on
their own. He noted that the council’s apprenticeship
program is recognized by both the state Department of Labor and the state
Education Department and compares it to a
college education.
“We are a leader in the industry,” he said.
Graduates of the union’s apprenticeship
program are well prepared and well equipped
with the tools of their trades, he noted. “It
comes down to efficiency.”
On the other side, the union works with
“contractors who are extraordinarily good at
what they do. They pay their bills. They obey
the law,” Stark said.
The union contracts separately with different
employers. In particular, they negotiate
wages. Wages, according to Stark, depend
upon how much work a contractor has and
how much money they are making. “Right now,
they are making money,” he commented. They
also negotiate the amount of contributions to
various benefit program and how those funds
will be allocated.
Another benefit for employers who use union labor, Stark said, is “if they call the
union hall when things are tight, they are
assured of finding workers.”
He estimated that 90 percent of the construction
in the greater capital region is done
by union employees.
The union represents workers in 14 building
trades in a geographical area stretching
from Columbia and Green Counties in the
south up through Washington and Warren
Counties. Membership has been growing
“modestly” for the last decade, according to
Stark.
While he boasts of the efficiency of the
union workers, Stark also points out that “this
is the only job in the world where the better
and faster you work, the quicker you work
yourself out of a job.”
Martel said that while GlobalFoundries has
been the biggest boost for his union, things
outside that microchip fabrication plant are looking up.
“The economy hasn’t been that great for
a few years, but lately we’re seeing signs of
improvement,” he said.
Schools are starting to do expansions and
renovations, state offices are beginning to
start capital programs. “Those are a lot of the
places where we get work,” he noted. “It’s going
to be a busier summer than the last few.”
Martel said there is no shortage of workers
for the plumbing industry.
“It’s gotten better in the last two or three
years. We’re very visible here at our new location,”
he said, referring to the office and training
facility that was built just a few years ago.
His union also works with BOCES programs,
high schools and trade groups “getting
the word out about the trades.”
Martel said work for plumbers and pipefitters
is much more technical now, especially
when dealing with industries, such as microchip
manufacturing, that require such a high
degree of cleanliness.
“Piping systems have changed a great deal.
Most of it calls for high purity and has very
specific procedures, much different that a
water treatment plant or an office complex.
There is specific protocol and safety procedures
involved, Martel said.
The facility includes a “clean room”
training space where workers learn those
procedures, which involve not only special
techniques, but wearing a special anticontamination
wardrobe.
Martel said worker safety is still the top
job priority.
“We want our workers to leave work the
way they went in. No injuries.”