IBEW Local 601 Fights Out-of-State Non-Union Contractor in Illinois

Brian Andersen, Business Manager of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 601 in Champaign, Ill., joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to detail a troubling situation unfolding at a $200 million apartment construction project on the University of Illinois campus. The problem centers on a Nashville-based non-union electrical contractor that brought in out-of-state workers to perform between $20 million and $30 million in electrical work.

At the same time, nearly 100 Local 601 members sit idle. Andersen outlined the significant wage and benefit gap between union and non-union workers on the project. He also raised questions about the bidding process, given a curious family connection between a union contractor and the non-union firm that won the work, and called on the community and the general contractor — which routinely signs project labor agreements in the Chicago area — to extend the same standard to Champaign.

• Workers from a Nashville-based non-union firm are performing electrical work on the project at reported wages of around $40 an hour — compared to the IBEW Local 601 base wage of $51.07 an hour. When you realize the pension and health and welfare benefits are paid entirely on top of that union wage rather than drawn from it, Anderson accurately points out that there is a substantial total compensation gap in favor of union workers.
• The general contractor on the project, managed by Power Construction out of the Chicago area, routinely signs project labor agreements on comparable projects in Chicago but declined to do so in Champaign — a pattern Andersen said reflects companies behaving like a pro-union contractor where they have to and testing the waters where they think they can get away with less.
• The non-union electrical contractor’s owner has a direct family connection to a union IBEW electrical contractor in the Chicago area that bid the same project — a relationship that Andersen said has raised significant questions among Local 601 members and Chicago-area union contractors about how the work was awarded.

A $200 Million Project, a Non-Union Contractor and a Community Left Out

Brian Andersen did not set out to be a union business manager. He was a 19-year-old community college student with no clear direction when a professor — a former IBEW member who had been injured and turned to teaching — pointed him toward the electrical apprenticeship. Three years of interviews and persistence later, he got in. Nearly two decades later, he is the business manager of IBEW Local 601 in Champaign, Ill., representing roughly 600 members. He is now fighting to ensure the work in his community goes to the workers who live there.

Right now, that fight is centered on a single project: a 15-story, $200 million mixed-use apartment building under construction on Green Street in the heart of Champaign’s university district. The project is being developed under the name PC Treehouse, an LLC managed by Power Construction, a major general contractor from the Chicago area. The electrical work — valued at somewhere between $20 million and $30 million — went to a non-union contractor based in Nashville, Tenn., whose workers have been brought in from out of state to do the job.

Wages Left Behind, Money Leaving the State

For the Champaign community, every dollar in wages paid to out-of-state workers is a dollar that does not circulate through local businesses, restaurants and neighborhoods. None of the electrical portion of the project is going to workers who live in the community it is being built to serve, Anderson said.

The wage comparison is equally stark. When Local 601’s organizer first contacted workers on the project, one of the lead workers reported earning around $40 an hour. The IBEW Local 601 base wage is $51.07 an hour. But the more telling difference, Andersen said, is on the benefits side. In a non-union environment, health care and retirement benefits are typically deducted from the hourly wage, reducing the worker’s take-home pay. Under the union contract, pension contributions and health and welfare benefits are paid entirely in addition to the base wage. The $51.07 is what a Local 601 member takes home. Everything else is added above it.

With between 80 and 100 Local 601 members currently off work, even a fraction of the electrical work on this job would make a meaningful difference, Anderson said. At peak, he estimated, a project of this scale could support between 25 and 50 electrical workers.

A Family Connection That Raises Questions

The circumstances surrounding the project’s bidding process have also generated significant attention within Local 601 and among Chicago-area union contractors. Bonus Electrical Construction Company — the non-union Nashville firm doing the electrical work in Champaign — was established in August of last year. Its owner is the son of the owner of an IBEW contractor based in the Chicago area, who also bid on the same project.

Andersen said he does not have direct knowledge of any improper communication between the two, but he was candid about the questions the situation raises. A union contractor with an established relationship with the general contractor bids on a project. A non-union company owned by that contractor’s son — a company that did not exist until months before bidding began — wins the electrical work. Andersen left the implications for listeners to draw their own conclusions, noting only that the situation has attracted attention not just locally but among Chicago-area unions and contractors who are very familiar with how Power Construction typically operates.

A General Contractor That Signs PLAs in Chicago but Not in Champaign

That operating pattern, in Andersen’s view, is the heart of the issue. Power Construction routinely signs project labor agreements on comparable projects in the Chicago area. A PLA would have ensured the work went to qualified local union contractors, that wages and benefits met established standards and that the project was built with the trained workforce available in the community. Local 601 requested a PLA on this project. The request was declined.

Andersen said this is a pattern he has seen before: A company leans on union labor in regions where the labor movement is large enough to make noncompliance costly, but then works non-union everywhere else, if they think they can get away with it. Chicago’s IBEW district is large enough that a significant show of force on a jobsite poses problems. Local 601 is trying to demonstrate that Champaign is a union town, Anderson said. Illinois University employs more than 100 IBEW workers full-time, he added, and the out-of-state non-union contractor on the apartment project should not expect to go unnoticed in this community.

Scabby Has Already Made an Appearance

The public campaign is underway. Scabby the Rat has already made appearances at the jobsite, and Andersen said another visit is possible. The Local is working to engage stakeholders across the community — and across the Chicago labor community — to shine a light on what is happening on the Green Street project. They hope to make it clear that the standard Power Construction applies in Chicago should apply in Champaign, Anderson said.

The project is just now going vertical, meaning the bulk of the electrical work is still ahead. Andersen said Local 601 is not done pushing for a project labor agreement and is committed to making sure the community understands what is at stake — not just on this job but in terms of the broader precedent it sets for how contractors treat union workers in downstate Illinois.

More information on IBEW Local 601 and its work in the Champaign community is available at ibew601.org.

Go Behind the Scenes of the Labor Movement

Every victory at the bargaining table starts with workers standing together. From the shop floor to the statehouse, hear how activists are fighting for better wages, safer conditions and a stronger future. Subscribe to the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to get the latest interviews with the leaders and organizers building worker power across America.