Unions colliding with Toll Road owner

August 7, 2007

BY KEITH BENMAN / THE TIMES, Munster, Indiana

Unions that were among the biggest supporters of Gov. Mitch Daniels' drive to privatize the Indiana Toll Road now fear construction jobs there may be going to nonunion workers from other countries.

"We are very concerned," said Jim Strayer, business manager for the Northwest Indiana Building and Construction Trades Council. "We are not getting the share of the work that we did before."

Specifically, the trades council wants an American-Spanish joint venture undertaking a $250 million lane-widening project to sign on to a project labor agreement, which would require the use of union labor.

More broadly, unions fear the Toll Road someday becoming a union-free work zone.

About $27 million worth of Toll Road projects currently under way are being done by nonunion companies, according to Matt Pierce, a spokesman for Toll Road operator ITR Concession Co. Some $258 million in projects are being done by union employers.

"We want the best contractors, with the best skills, at the best value for that particular project," Pierce said. "We don't want to say only union or only nonunion."

Construction unions were a powerful force behind the Indiana Toll Road privatization because they felt the $3.8 billion lease fee would kick-start road projects across the state.

Pierce said ITR Concession Co. also has been contacted by the Indiana/Kentucky Regional Council of Carpenters, which wants the company to abide by federal prevailing wage standards for all Toll Road projects.

All highway projects getting federal funds must abide by prevailing wage standards under federal law. But Toll Road projects now are entirely funded by ITR Concession Co., so they do not fall under the law's mandate.

On the lane-widening project, the bulk of the work is being done by Rieth-Riley, a union contractor out of Goshen, Ind., Pierce said.

However, about $15 million of the work is being done by Ferrovial Agroman Indiana. Rieth-Riley and Ferrovial Agroman have formed a joint venture for the project.

Ferrovial Agroman has aroused the suspicion of unions because it is a subsidiary of worldwide construction and management company Ferrovial Group, of Madrid, Spain. The company is using its own employees for planning and design work on the lane widening project.

Rieth-Riley Regional Vice President Doug Robinson said Ferrovial Agroman employees are not working in any job classification covered by union agreements. The Ferrovial employees are engineers, technicians and designers, Robinson said.

"Everything in the jurisdiction of the local union is being done by union workers," Robinson said.

The Ferrovial employees are generally from Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries. That could be contributing to the unions' suspicion that their members are being displaced by foreign workers, Robinson said.

On the Toll Road's other big project, the installation of electronic tolling, about $19 million of the $22 million project is being done by Spanish information technology firm INDRA, Pierce said. Local union construction firms landed contracts for $3 million worth of the work, Pierce said.

Strayer and other union leaders point out their council includes technical engineers qualified to do surveying and layout on highway projects. They say they only are opposed to foreign workers if they take away work that belongs to union members here.

All unions in the council, representing about 25,000 workers, will have an "intense" series of meetings on the issue over the next two weeks, Strayer said.