Will-Grundy Building Trades Rally For Joliet NorthPoint

JOLIET, IL —If you drive around the area, you see lots of "PROUD UNION HOME" yard signs. On Thursday, about 100 skilled union laborers and tradesmen gathered for a rally near the proposed NorthPoint Development's Compass Business Park on the southern boundary of Joliet.

The Will & Grundy Counties Building Trades Council organized Thursday afternoon's event. Some of the trades at the rally included Local 151, Carpenters Local 174, District Labor Council 175, the International Union of Bricklayers, Laborers’ District Council Labor-Management Cooperation Committee and Ironworkers Local 444.

Joliet Patch was on hand to interview several members of the local trades to learn why they hope Joliet's City Council approves the project at Tuesday night's meeting. The NorthPoint project has its share of vocal opposition, but most are people from outside the city of Joliet, residents who live in the Elwood and Manhattan areas.

The following members of organized labor spoke with Joliet Patch at Thursday's rally.

Here's what they said:

Timothy Rossborough, business representative International Union of Bricklayers:

"Each building should probably have about 20 bricklayers working on it for a period anywhere from a month to three months, depending on if there's block work on the inside or not ... The key argument, these people from Joliet need jobs. These are good-paying jobs, providing for their families. You're talking about prevailing wage jobs. Full package, a union bricklayer right now is $77 an hour. That's a job that you can provide for your family.

"Going forward, I hope the Joliet City Council understands that this is definitely a big economic impact for the city of Joliet. And, I think it's going to be a big boost for the city of Joliet. The downtown would be vibrant again because of people putting money in their pockets and being able to go downtown and having a nice meal with their family."

Kevin Hray, business manager of Ironworkers Local 444 in Will County: "The ironworkers, we have about 2,500 total members in our council. Locally here, we have about 600 members. A lot of our members make their living on these type of projects. I do myself. We look forward to this project. We've done our due diligence with NorthPoint. Some of the people say that we're going to regret it later, that NorthPoint has had bad relationships with trades in the past. We've done our job here. I can't speak to what has happened in other places ... We're not only going to erect the buildings, we're going to get all the work on the inside of the buildings.

"Each building that goes up could be a year for the ironworkers, or more, that's a huge deal. We don't ever get that. That's for one building. This could go on for 10 years. So we have a whole generation that could possibly make their living off of this Compass Business Park; which is a really big deal for us. I'm also a pension trustee and a health care fund trustee, and I know, some of the trades, there's guys that say they're against it, but collectively, as a whole, I have to look at what's good for all the membership. And, a project like this, it's good for the whole membership. We've got to fund our future. We've got to fund those health care funds. All of that stuff is very important to the trades."

Rayna Pratt, Local 150 apprentice,

"My concern is job security. I'm a resident of Will County. Changes have come and we need to adjust accordingly and respect those that need job security. Everything is being eliminated ... This would be a beginning. And seeing that I live in the area it would be most important for me that this would come through. The most important thing, we need to know what our future is, and with change, the future for job stability for anyone that's employed and need to be employed here and in anywhere else."

Les Cheney, ambassador Will-Grundy Contractors Association, retired cement finisher and 43-year member of Local 11, which is now called Area 161.

"The city of Joliet, I would certainly hope that they would vote in favor of this because I don't believe Joliet, with their tax burden, and their burden of pensions, I think they need the additional funding. It would help them and certainly the local tradesmen. Our membership of the contractors association is made up of union contractors, which, obviously, we use all union employees.

"People continuously say, understandably, about the trucks. And this particular development, I don't believe they realize, the trucks are not going to be on (Route) 53. And certainly that's a major concern."

After Thursday's labor union rally, Three Rivers Construction Alliance executive director Tom White told Joliet Patch he "is hopefully optimistic" that Joliet's City Council will approve the NorthPoint development.

White said the trades plan to have a strong showing at Joliet's City Hall for Tuesday night's meeting.

"We'll probably have 100 people," he said.