Central Area Team Report

If you're a carpenter from the central part of the state you know that work has been off to a great start this year. We began this year with a battle for the work on the new SCI Benner Prison. The $200 million project was to be done under a PLA (Project Labor Agreement) signed with DGS (Dept. of General Service). DGS backed out of the PLA last year and rebid the project without using the PLA. The project was then awarded to Hensel Phelps, a non-union General Contractor from Virginia. The Carpenters organized a rally against a local politician who openly spoke against the PLA. There were sixty carpenters that attended the rally the day before Election Day along with media coverage. The politician agreed to speak with us and decided to help encourage Hensel Phelps and DGS to subcontract the work to local contractors. With the help from Carpenter's locals #950, #947, #1419, #645, and #1233 we were successful in getting G.M. McCrossin, a signatory contractor, on board. They were able to place about 65 carpenters on the project. We are still gaining work on this project as it moves forward. Novingers was recently awarded the framing package. Thanks to all of the carpenters who attended the rally and helped out in the bannering.

State College received its nickname Happy Valley years ago by prospering through hard economic times. Even in today's poor economy, State College continues to thrive. This continued growth can all be credited to the Penn State Campus. So far this year Penn State has bid out 21 projects that are considered large scale projects. This does not include the many smaller projects the Physical Plant has given out. We have been very successful in performing the majority of the carpentry work on campus. The largest project for Penn State this year has yet to be bid. Penn State received an $88 million donation from Terry Pegula (Owner of the Buffalo Sabres) to construct a new 6,000 seat ice arena. Mortenson Construction from Minnesota is the Construction Manager for this project. The carpentry packages are to be bid out this fall. Penn State will have a Division 1 hockey team, and the carpenters will do all we can to make sure we are part of it.

As Penn State continues to build and remodel, so does the rest of the surrounding areas. The Mount Nittany Medical Center is currently undergoing major renovation and addition. Alexander Construction is the Construction Manager for this project. This has been a great project not only for us, but also for our contractors. On this project alone there have been eight signatory companies on site and there are more to come.

Even though some of us vow to never work there, power plants continue to add an enormous amount of man hours every year. Following up with last year's large outage, the Conemaugh power plant is entering into a second year with yet another major outage. With the regular maintenance scheduled for this year, they are also going to be refurbishing another cooling tower. The manpower for the cooling tower alone is expected to be around 140 carpenters with lots of overtime. With the cooling tower and the regular maintenance work, an outage of this size could put well over 200 carpenters to work for three months. Thank God for aging power plants.

Compared to the last few years the central area has been fortunate in regards to having work. There have been many battles fought and there will be many more ahead. Some we won and some are unfinished. We would like to say "Thank You" to all of those who help when called upon. "Thank You" for handbilling, picketing, bannering, or even e-mailing your friends. Every decision we make or don't make affects our future. This is why we need to stand strong, together.

Wade Baumgartner, Team Leader – Central Area