THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2000
Ironworkers local protests use of out-of-area labor
By Malinda Ruble
Staff Writer
Representatives from Ironworkers Union Local 55 in Toledo took part in a silent protest during the ground-breaking ceremony for Charter Steel's $16 million facility Wednesday.
As Charter Steel's Chairman and CEO John Mellowes sang the praises of the workforce in the area, iron workers stood silently, carrying banners stating, "Tax relief should be local jobs" and "Be a good neighbor, hire a local iron worker."
Union representatives agreed the development is a plus for the community. But Charter Steel's hiring of a Cleveland-area contracting firm to provide the 12,000 hours of labor needed to build the 100,000-square foot plant was not supported by the union workers.
"We're excited about this. We welcome this, but we also welcome local workers going to work,'' said Joseph Blaze II, business manager for Local 55.
Blaze said the Cleveland firm will take jobs away from the 1,075 building trades workers in Wood County.
"They let it to Royal in Cleveland and they are planning on transporting workers to displace workers here," Blaze said. "We have offered incentives to use locals, but they refuse to take advantage of the wage incentive so the local people in this community won't build this project and we're not happy about it.''
Mellowes said the decision was purely an economical one.
"We had an engineering firm design the building and we sought bids. We picked the contract that gave us the best deal,'' he said.