Jobs are a big promise of the development. But who gets those jobs, how much training will they get, and how much will they be paid?
Negotiations are continuing to close the deal that would bring a $350 million development -- and a minor league baseball stadium for the New Britain Rock Cats -- to Hartford. One sticking point is whether union labor will build the project.
Ed Reilly, the president of the Greater Hartford/New Britain Building Trades Council, wants what's called a project labor agreement, or a PLA -- something that would commit all 12 trade unions to the job. That could mean good jobs and benefits for workers, but it also could mean a much higher price tag.
"We, as a building trades council, are in support of this development, conditionally," Reilly said. That is, he supports it if there's a labor deal. "If the city of Hartford is going to put time, resources, money, transfer property, and all that, well then, the citizens of the City of Hartford need to benefit by that."
Reilly made his comments at a public hearing earlier this week.
Not every tradesman agrees. Derrick Ware told the city council, "My name is Derrick. I'm a plumber's apprentice. I can't get into a union until next year, and these things are going. I want to speak on behalf of the people that's non-union. We want to be a part of this, too."
Jobs are big promise of the development -- 2,000 construction jobs, in fact. But who gets those jobs, how much training they will get, and how much they will be paid has become an issue. The city said it is in the middle of negotiations, and so it declined to comment. But the developer said adding union labor to the $350 million job could add ten to 15 percent to the total cost.
"The city could require us to build a stadium with a PLA," said developer Bob Landino. "We don't recommend it, but since they're the owner, and they're paying the bills, it would be their call as long as they understood that there was a real increase in cost."
But Landino, a former Democratic state lawmaker, said that's not something his group is seriously considering for the rest of the deal. Higher labor costs on the front end would mean higher rents on the back end, and that would price his buildings out of the market.
"Because we're a market-driven real estate opportunity, our budgets are competing against buildings that are built with non-union labor," Landino said. "We have to be mindful and sensitive of that fact. We can't raise the hard ceiling of our cost."
Landino said his firm, Centerplan Development, is union-friendly, but combining a strong union requirement with a strong requirement for hiring Hartford residents could make completing the project impossible.