Dorsey Hager, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast for his monthly check-in, where he discussed a string of developments that paint a picture of a regional building trades community firing on all cylinders.
A National Apprenticeship Week outreach event hosted by IBEW Local 683 drew close to 1,000 attendees — including more than 100 workers from non-union contractors looking to make the switch. The high attendance can be attributed to the fact that data center construction work accounts for roughly 40 percent of all building trades man-hours in central Ohio. Hager also weighed in on the NABTU Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C. and outlined the key Ohio primary races on May 5, where pro-labor candidates need building trades members to show up at the polls.
Dorsey Hager has been tracking the pulse of the Columbus building trades for years, and when he joins America's Work Force Union Podcast each month, the conversation tends to reflect a region in motion. May Day brought no exception. From a record-breaking apprenticeship outreach event to a data center construction boom reshaping the regional economy to a primary election with real stakes for organized labor in Ohio, Hager arrived with a full agenda and a clear sense of urgency on every item.
National Apprenticeship Week provided the backdrop for what Hager described as one of the most impressive outreach events the Columbus building trades has ever seen. IBEW Local 683, led by Business Manager Pat Hook and Training Director Trent Parker, co-hosted a two-hour recruitment event at State E3 in Columbus. The response was unlike anything organizers had seen before.
In years past, a strong outreach event might draw 50 to 80 people. This one generated well over 1,000 RSVPs. Close to 1,000 people showed up. By the time the doors opened at 5 p.m., more than 300 people were already in line. Representatives from multiple building trades Locals were on hand, including operating engineers, painters, plumbers and pipe fitters, sheet metal workers and others. The goal was for anyone who walked in with an interest in a specific trade to be able to speak directly to someone from that Local Union.
What stood out most to Hager was not just the volume but the composition of the crowd. More than 100 attendees were already working in the electrical industry — employed by non-union contractors at hospitals, data centers and other facilities. They came specifically to compare wages and benefits and explore a path into IBEW Local 683 or IBEW Local 1105. That, Hager said, is the union advantage in action. The two Locals are currently among the fastest-growing IBEW Locals in North America, a designation driven directly by the scale of construction activity in central Ohio.
Hager also described a meeting with Sarah Ingalls — now legal counsel for the Ohio Democratic House Caucus and pro tem of the Columbus City School Board — and contractors to discuss expanding outreach to middle and high schools. The message he wants students and parents to understand is that a skilled trades apprenticeship offers a debt-free path to a six-figure salary, and that path is open right now.
The engine behind much of the building trades growth in central Ohio is data center construction. Hager estimated that roughly 40 percent of all building trades man-hours in the Columbus area come from data center projects. Three Google campuses in the region alone generated 6.5 million man-hours in the building trades last year. Meta, Microsoft and Amazon projects are active across the area, and Hager noted that younger apprentices take particular pride in telling people they are helping build the country's digital infrastructure.
Electricians are central to that work, handling server, security, alarm and fire systems, but Hager was careful to note that the opportunity extends across multiple trades. Plumbers, pipe fitters, sheet metal workers and insulators all have significant roles in data center construction and maintenance.
The next wave of opportunity is already forming, Hagar added. A natural gas power plant is currently under construction in the region. It is expected to begin producing power by November. A second plant is proposed to break ground nearby early next year, and a large energy center has been proposed in Asheville as well. Data center developers, aware that their facilities are placing new demands on the regional electrical grid, are investing in dedicated power generation to relieve that strain. For the building trades, that means not only constructing and maintaining data centers but also building and maintaining the power centers that support them.
Community pushback on data center development has been a recurring topic in central Ohio, and Hager addressed it directly. In Marysville — where he lives and where Union County has grown from 12,000 to more than 30,000 residents in 20 years — a fifth data center was recently approved by the city council with minimal opposition. Union County and neighboring Delaware County rank among the fastest-growing counties in the United States on a per-capita basis, and Hager said the growth is simply the reality of a thriving regional economy. The digital presence people object to on social media, he noted, does not always translate to meaningful opposition at public meetings.
In rural areas, the picture is more mixed. Still, Hager said farmers, local officials and business owners in those communities are increasingly recognizing the tax base revenue, school funding and employment opportunities that come with data center development. The building trades' role in those conversations — presenting the economic case alongside the labor case — is making a difference, he said.
Hager was among roughly 3,000 attendees at the North American Building Trades Unions (NABTU) Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C. last month. He described the energy in the room as exceptional, driven in part by a lineup of speakers that included AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer, Brian Schatz and Elissa Slotkin and New Jersey Gov. Michelle Sherrill, whose opening remarks set an energized tone for the entire conference.
One element Hager singled out as particularly effective was a dedicated session featuring building trades members who are currently running for office — including candidates for the U.S. Senate and state legislatures. Breakout sessions on artificial intelligence, data center construction, pre-apprenticeship programming and messaging rounded out a schedule that Hager said kept attendees fully engaged each day. Lobbying visits with congressional offices and senators' staffs were woven throughout.
With Ohio's primary election set for May 5, Hager outlined a set of races the Columbus Building Trades is watching closely — and in several cases, actively supporting. The council made the unprecedented decision to endorse in statewide races this cycle, backing Allison Russo, former Ohio House minority leader, for Secretary of State, and Jay Edwards for State Treasurer. Russo has been a consistent advocate for the building trades and working people; Edwards has put forward ideas around wage theft enforcement that Hager said make him the right choice for treasurer. Edwards' primary opponent, state Rep. Christina Regner, has a record of introducing legislation to ban project labor agreements, eliminate prevailing wage and establish so-called “Right-To-Work” in Ohio.
Locally, Hager highlighted several additional races. State Sen. Bill DeMora faces a primary challenge from the left in a district where the Democratic nominee is expected to win the general election. Ryan Rivers is running in a competitive Republican state Senate primary against a candidate Hager described as no friend of the building trades. Stacy Baker is running in a State Senate race that Hager said could flip the last Franklin County-adjacent Senate seat currently held by an unfriendly Republican. And Ben Weber, a progressive Republican running for a State House seat, is facing an opponent who has pushed for moratoriums on data center development — a position Hager said makes the race particularly consequential for the region's construction economy.
His message to union members ahead of the primary was simple: pull your ballot, do your homework, identify the pro-labor candidates regardless of party and vote for them. More information is available at columbusconstruction.org.
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