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Nonbinding resolution blasts Continental for nonunion workers

Wednesday, March 05, 2003

By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Reflecting the influence unions still play in city politics, Pittsburgh City Council joined a group of construction unions yesterday in condemning Continental Real Estate for using nonunion workers on a $29 million apartment construction project on the South Side.

With several union leaders in attendance, Council passed by voice vote a nonbinding resolution that accused Slate Rock Construction and Accu-Crete -- Columbus, Ohio-based Continental's subcontractors on the 270-unit rental housing complex -- of bringing in Spanish-speaking "immigrants" to do the concrete foundation work instead of using local laborers.

The resolution, sponsored by council President Gene Ricciardi and Councilman Alan Hertzberg, also noted that local building trades union leaders were demanding that Continental "not exploit these individuals and make a full disclosure of their pay, work conditions and living conditions."

Urban Redevelopment Authority Director Mulugetta Birru later challenged the claim that the workers were immigrants, saying he is certain all the workers on the site "are American citizens," perhaps from New Mexico, but not Mexico.

And Councilman Sala Udin noted that, according to the city Finance Department, Continental and Accu-Crete are in compliance with their wage-tax obligations to the city -- another point the union leaders had questioned -- and that Continental had told him the lowest hourly wage being paid to the workers was $10.50.

Still, council passed the resolution in response to complaints from the Pittsburgh Building and Construction Trades Council of the AFL-CIO. The labor union also said it wanted a black tarp that had been put on a fence at the construction site to be taken down so outsiders can see into the site and check how the workers are being treated -- a request Udin later said Continental was willing to meet.

Continental officials couldn't be reached.

The South Side housing, at 25th and Carson Streets, is one of several major Pittsburgh-area projects for Continental, including The Waterfront retail/restaurant/ housing, renovation of the Galleria mall in Mt. Lebanon and the coming office/housing development on the city's North Shore.

Birru, whose agency once owned the site on the South Side, said the five acres had been sold to Continental and that no public funds are being used to build the housing.

"There's no tax-increment financing or other type of public financing or subsidies in the project," Birru said. "Continental is using its own money."

He also said the city has no way to force Continental to use any particular workers or pay a certain level of wages. But he said that if workers from another state were to be barred from working here, Pittsburghers could be barred from working in other states.