Last December, Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council Executive Secretary-Treasurer Dorsey Hager shared his outlook for how 2025 would unfold across Central Ohio.
While Hager was cautiously optimistic heading into the year, with plenty of unknowns, political and financial, he believed it was still going to be a strong year for affiliated members.
With several weeks still left on the calendar, a look back at Hager’s predictions shows just how much the year delivered for union construction workers across the region.
Record Setting Year
If construction markets were hot peppers, Central Ohio would be the equivalent of the ghost pepper, one of the hottest peppers in the world.
Despite setting a new work-hours record last year, affiliated C/COBCTC members will likely exceed that mark by at least 1 million hours in 2025.
Hager said there are more megaprojects within his jurisdiction than the rest of the state combined.
That list includes the Intel plant, the L-H Battery Company EV Battery Plant and datacenters for Vantage, Google, DBT, QTS, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta.
Hager also emphasized that megaprojects are not the sole source of employment for affiliated members.
He pointed to several projects coming in just under $1 billion, including Anduril and AMGEN, as well as a steady pipeline of large- and medium-sized projects across the region.
By every measure, the 2025 workload surpassed expectations.
Recruit, Recruit, Recruit
Hager also highlighted the push by affiliated unions to recruit apprentices and organize non-union construction workers.
As the workload continues to increase due to PLAs and megaprojects, the need for people to do the work remains a significant challenge.
Affiliated unions must recruit not only to meet today’s demand but to build the workforce needed for the next wave of projects.
Hager cited the importance of bringing travelers into the Central Ohio jurisdiction and then working to encourage those tradesmen and tradeswomen to permanently relocate, join a Local Union and strengthen the region’s long-term capacity.
With the Baby Boomer generation continuing to retire and the workload growing, 2025 reinforced what the industry already knows: attracting new talent is essential to building the projects on the books and meeting future demand.