Dorsey Hager, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, kicked off his December appearance on the America’s Workforce Union Podcast discussing the Intel megaproject.
Dorsey Hager, C/COBCTC Executive Secretary-Treasurer
Hager told AWF host Ed “Flash” Ferenc that Intel is looking for a new CEO after Pat Gelsinger announced he would retire.
Despite the icy winter weather, there are still 2,000 construction workers on site at Intel.
When Intel broke ground, the project was scheduled to be completed by the summer of 2026. Now, Hager predicts it will be completed by the summer of 2029 or 2030.
Despite the trades being busy, Hager said they are still able to man all of the ongoing jobs in Central Ohio.
“We’re manning all our jobs like the OSU Medical Center, Intel, Honda, Amazon’s datacenters and Microsoft’s datacenters,” Hager said. “We’re taking care of all our manpower needs.”
Unions continue to expand apprenticeship programs
With the region’s growth expected to continue, Hager said many of C/COBCTC’s affiliated apprenticeship programs are either expanding or building new, larger facilities.
Hager told Ferenc he is hopeful that Building Futures, the pre-apprenticeship program that equips individuals from underserved communities with the skills needed to start a successful apprenticeship program, will also grow.
“We’re continuing to sort out funding for our pre-apprenticeship program to make sure that it not only continues next year but also that it grows so we can give more opportunities to more folks in underserved communities that may not know about these great opportunities in the building trades,” Hager said.
New datacenter
To wrap up the podcast, Ferenc asked Hager about a new $7 billion investment in Central Ohio.
America’s Workforce Radio Host Ed “Flash” Ferenc
Collogix, a Denver-based datacenter company, recently announced that it had purchased 154 acres of land in Johnstown and plans to invest $7 billion to build eight datacenters covering a little more than 2 million square.
Besides the eight datacenters, there will also be several support buildings, that need to be constructed.
“We have a skilled workforce here and we’re training and growing that workforce to make sure that we can cover not only Collogix but the Microsofts, Amazons, Googles, Metas and Apples that are also building datacenters,” Hager said.
According to Hager, the total cost of all the data centers proposed or under construction in Central Ohio is over $40 billion.
Listen to the full interview HERE.
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