Union building trades working together to develop the future of Ohio

Mike Knisely, Executive Secretary of the Ohio State Building and Construction Trades Council, joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to talk about the construction boom throughout Ohio over the past five years, the progress on the Intel semiconductor plant projects and the work on the Honda and LG joint EV battery production facility.

In 2018, Knisely began his tenure as the Executive Secretary of the Ohio State BTC. Around the same time, Knisely began speaking with several companies looking to come to Central Ohio. It’s been non-stop projects announced over the past five years, he’s said. Knisely then talked about how the past several years materialized.

In 2022, when Intel announced plans to develop a new semiconductor plant just outside Columbus it was a surprise to Knisely. The announcement created an Ohio record for a privately-funded construction project with more than $20 billion in investment for the first phase of the project. He then discussed the reasons behind the recent delay to the Intel project, and what it means for the trades in the area. Knisely then discussed the incredible efforts by the Central Ohio Building Trades to organize more workers to meet the manpower needs for all of the projects in the region.

Finally, Knisely discussed the joint Honda and LG EV battery project in between Columbus and Cincinnati. The plant is over 3 million square feet, and they have a goal to begin producing sample batteries for the Electric Vehicle market in October. The state-of-the-art plant has been an incredible project to watch for Knisely. He discussed how the building trades in Dayton, Columbus and Cincinnatti worked together to get the plant together quickly and safely.

For more on the work for the building trades throughout Ohio, listen to the show above.