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Not long ago, we ran a blog on a sub-contractor for Craig Construction allegedly hiring non-certified welders, as well as encouraging illegals to apply. We received the following comment:
While Craig might warrant some attention for its outside hiring, their practices are not even close to the guys building that hospital. Layton is an outside company, using 100% outside labor. And that "community" project is about 10x larger than the middle school.
The thrust of our blog was on "non-certified" and "illegal," rather than simply outside labor. The new hospital is privately owned and does not have to answer to citizens for its hiring standards as long as they are legal. Is this a good or bad thing?
Not being connected to the group building the new facility, we have no idea if any locals actually bid on the project. We will assume they did. The second salient question concerns the ability of local construction companies to manage a job that size. No matter, the word "private" says it all.
So, is there an upside to hiring outside companies? Most workers travel in teams and will spend at least four nights in the area each week. They spend money on lodging and food, as well as purchase odds and ends for themselves. From what we've heard, many of these workers are housed in hotels outside Florence, but still in the Shoals area of Rogersville or Sheffield.
While imported workers from Kentucky or Florida labor in the Shoals, we have to wonder how many home-grown workers are laboring in North Carolina through the week in order to make ends meet? We would love to hear from someone in a trade union who could offer some insight into this phenomenon.
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I am in a local trade union. I do know that the local contractors that are a part of the collective bargaining agreement with my union have not bid on the hospital. To say that this fact has been "concerning" is putting it lightly. Not only did they not bid on this job, there have been serveral other medium and large jobs in the unions jurisdiction that the associated contractors did not bid on. I will also say that the local municipalities are not very "supportive" of the local trade unions in the Shoals area. They really wouldn't want trade unions performing the work I am referring to for several reasons. Follow the bread crumbs.....
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