Columbus’ infrastructure created dream scenario for Silicon Heartland

Executive Secretary-Treasurer for the Colombus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, Dorsey Hager, joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to talk about Google’s recent pledge of $1.7 billion in additional construction. Hager also discussed how the building trades can handle manpower needs and the Davis-Bacon Act changes.

Google currently has three datacenter campuses that are either completed or under construction. Google has promised another $1.7 billion investment into Central Ohio to support their current and future developments, including a fourth campus. The infrastructure provided by Central Ohio has made the area a hotbed for these new technology developments, Hager said.

When looking at issues arising from overseas companies building new facilities in the U.S., there’s been problems when these companies try to bring in overseas workers. Hager described the building of a paper plant in Circleville and the employer’s belief in the area’s workforce. The building trades took that slight to heart, and corrected the issues by ensuring they could always provide the highly-trained workforce needed for these jobs. Even now, as the tech company booms are coming to the Central Ohio region, Hager is ensuring that the building trades are ready and able to take on the work available in the region—work that’s projected to last over 10 years.

The changes to Federal Davis-Bacon laws were recently announced after nearly 40 years without updates. The new changes will provide higher wages and allow for greater enforcement for the rule breakers. The Prevailing Wage requirements are more impactful for larger highway projects, where wages are based on the higher prevailing wages. The Project Labor Agreements in place for projects in the Central Ohio region are placing the building trades as the leaders for the work and in turn, will help raise many new union members into the middle class, Hager said.

To hear more on the Central Ohio tech growth, please listen to the episode above.