Dorsey Hager provides Columbus Airport update

Franklin County Elected Officials, Stakeholders and Friends of the Columbus/Central Ohio Building Trades:

Unfortunately, despite many of your efforts, negotiations regarding the Columbus Airport have reached an impasse – no additional negotiations are scheduled. Despite numerous concessions and attempts by the Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council (C/COBCTC) to secure labor protections for all the workers performing covered work on the new terminal project, Joe Nardone, Columbus Regional Airport Authority President and CEO, continued to demand that some contractors be permitted to opt out of the Community Benefit Agreement (CBA), which would have harmed workers, left the terminal project exposed to labor unrest and undermined the reasons for having a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) in the first place. Therefore, it does not make sense to continue negotiations for a CBA on this project.

CBAs and Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) have helped build Central Ohio public and private projects in recent years, including Intel, the new Franklin County Jail, Honda, the Hollywood Casino Hotel and the Linden Recreation Center. The Franklin County Commissioners and the City of Columbus regularly use CBAs and similar agreements on their construction projects. In addition to protecting projects, CBAs guarantee equal treatment for women, minorities and construction workers of all races and genders on their construction projects As the project owner, CRAA could have followed the lead of our elected officials. Unfortunately, CRAA’s insistence on contractor opt-out provisions exposes affected workers to unequal treatment on the job with no legally binding grievance procedure to protect them in lieu of engaging in lawful strikes and other forms of protected activity.

At this point, our only option is to hold CRAA accountable for their refusal to work with us to protect the rights of construction workers on the airport’s new terminal project. Moving forward, the C/COBCTC and its members will begin a campaign to inform the public, business and leisure travelers to the city and county and airport and airline workers who use CMH as their workplace, domicile or commuting airport of CRAA’s refusal to require an agreement that protects workers on the project and the risk of labor unrest at the airport when construction begins later this year. The C/COBCTC is preparing for litigation against the CRAA to ensure that construction workers, community supporters and labor unions can engage in a wide range of lawful activities on airport grounds. We will also pursue other actions we deem necessary to ensure the public and the national labor movement and its partners are made aware of CRAA’s actions.  

The C/COBCTC greatly appreciates all our elected officials, community partners and stakeholders who stood with us through this process. We are asking you to continue to support us as we take action to hold CRAA accountable. 

Thank you for continuing to stand with organized labor and promoting the use of PLAs and CBAs on projects moving forward.

Thank you again,

Dorsey Hager