Wondolowski calls out GCP’s double talk
The following article was an op-ed piece by Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council Executive Secretary/Business Manager Dave Wondolowski. It was was first published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer and Cleveland.com on May 21.
Wondolowski provided The Labor Citizen with a copy to publish in order to educate Cleveland-area building trades members about the Greater Cleveland Partnership and its preference for using out-of-state, low-wage construction workers on projects instead of promoting the use of Community Benefit Agreements.
By Dave Wondolowski Executive Secretary/ Business Manager, Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council
Alas, the Greater Cleveland Partnership has shown its true allegiance regarding community benefits. For the last ten years, this local chamber of commerce has been raising money under the notion that they are holding developers accountable for providing benefits back to the community in exchange for lucrative public financial assistance on their projects. In the beginning, GCP’s efforts seemed admirable, but it did not take long to see what was really going on.
After many planning meetings, the community-benefits model GCP promoted was a “cafeteria” style plan that allowed the developer to pick and choose what benefits they would deliver to Clevelanders in return for the public incentives. For example, one developer promised that they would make “best faith efforts” to hire 5 percent of Cleveland’s residents for the nearly 400 construction jobs on his project. So, 20 construction jobs would have gone to Clevelanders, assuming they hit the 5 percent soft goal. Much of the construction on that project was performed by contractors and workers who came in from outside of Cleveland and even out of state.
The GCP model also allowed the developer to choose whether Ohio’s prevailing wage laws would govern the minimum wage for workers on their project. This was at the same time when they were demanding that we bring more people into the building trades unions. How can we recruit more people into our unions if the local chamber of commerce is supporting construction jobs that pay less than our contracted rate?
Having a Community Benefits Agreement without paying area standard wage rates is like buying a car without an engine. There is no community benefit in offering low-wage construction jobs.
GCP fails to understand this.
This year, the city of Cleveland is attempting, once and for all, to codify community benefits by drafting a comprehensive and well-thought-out set of standards for future public assistance for development in Cleveland. These public incentives (loans and tax exemptions for developers) come directly from Cleveland taxpayers. In essence, the Community Benefits Ordinance requires
investors who receive financial assistance from Cleveland taxpayers to provide certain minimum benefits back to Clevelanders in return.
It’s no surprise that GCP attended a recent hearing at City Hall and asked Council not to require community benefits on the most common type of financial assistance -- tax increment financing. GCP’s claim was that there would be “unintended consequences that would actually chill development.” It’s unconscionable that an organization that has spent the last 10 years raising money through donations under the flag of community benefits for Clevelanders would now try to gut this ordinance.
What’s more striking is how GCP’s stance is diametrically opposed by the actions of so many owners in this town who truly believe in community benefits -- many of which are GCP members. Rock Ventures, the Cavs, the Browns, the Guardians, the Cleveland Clinic, University Health, Cuyahoga Community College, Sherwin-Williams and so many more have all demonstrated through their own projects that comprehensive community benefits, like the ones laid out in the city’s proposed ordinance, are an essential piece to their success.
The Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council enthusiastically supports the Cleveland ordinance as proposed. We can do better for this community and its residents, and we will through this law.