Save Our Steel in the News

Union crews to be used at Steel site

Developer says it's the right thing to do for BethWorks project.

By Matt Assad of The Morning Call

May 19, 2004

For decades, union workers at Bethlehem Steel's south Bethlehem plant helped build and defend the nation, and developer Michael Perrucci says he won't dishonor that history.

Perrucci pledged this week that only union workers will help redevelop the 120-acre Bethlehem Works site. That means every subcontractor must hire union workers, guaranteeing hundreds of union jobs.

''That is great to hear,'' said Tom Jones, business manager for Local 2599 of the United Steelworkers of America. ''It won't help our guys, but it will be a big boost for the building trades unions. That's a good move by Perrucci.''

Perrucci's BethWorks Now last month signed an agreement of sale to buy the former Steel site from International Steel Group, the Cleveland company that bought bankrupt Bethlehem Steel Corp. a year ago.

''I absolutely intend to do everything with union workers,'' Perrucci said. ''I think for large-scale projects, the quality is better and, philosophically, I think it's the right thing to do.''

The pledge is welcome news to workers who in the past two decades lost more than 10,000 union jobs at Bethlehem Steel's flagship plant, until the last steel operations closed in 1998.

How many jobs will be created will depend on Perrucci's plan, and how quickly it takes to get off the ground. For now, he says he's still formulating what that plan will be.

Estimates for the original Bethlehem Works museum, shopping and entertainment district predicted $450 million in investment and hundreds of construction jobs during a decade-long buildout.

Perrucci, a New Jersey developer, admitted his union-only pledge is no special treatment for Bethlehem Works. He uses union workers for practically all of his construction jobs, including the current $40 million project to transform the Hillcrest Mall, near Phillipsburg, into a medical office plaza.

In most cases, the use of union workers requires the signing of a project labor agreement. Such agreements lock the developer into using only union workers, and in return the workers agree not to strike.

Northampton County Executive Glenn Reibman signed a project labor agreement for the county's $69 million prison and courthouse expansion project. Project labor agreements were also encouraged nationwide by former President Bill Clinton. They can be a good move for Democratic politicians, who generally count on union support to win elections.

But not everyone will be happy about Perrucci's pledge to funnel tens of millions of dollars of work to union shops.

The Associated Builders and Contractors, a conservative group representing 23,000 construction firms nationwide, spoke out against Northampton County's project labor agreement, calling it bad business and discrimination against nonunion companies.

''Nationwide only 16 percent of the work force belongs to construction unions,'' said Scott Brown, spokesman for the association's national office in Arlington, Va. ''Limiting bids to only union workers reduces competition and drives up construction costs. are not a good idea. It's fiscally irresponsible.''

But that group's voice doesn't ring loud in a union-dominated city where the mayor and all seven council members are Democrats.

''The large part of the organization of unionized labor in the history of our country was played out ,'' said Mayor John Callahan. ''We're talking about preserving history there, and it's appropriate that organized labor would play a role in bringing that site back to life.''

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