A
proposal to construct 50 more single-family homes for low-income renters may
hinge on whether Springfield City Council members grant an exception to a 2023
ordinance that guarantees union involvement in the hiring and pay of workers on
large projects.
The proposed fifth phase of home development in the Nehemiah
Expansion project would provide desperately needed, decent and affordable
housing on the city’s east side, according to the Rev. Silas Johnson, pastor of
Calvary Missionary Baptist Church.
Johnson told City Council members during a Feb. 12 meeting in
front of more than 150 building trades union supporters that a city-mandated
“project labor agreement,” or PLA, would boost labor costs for the project by
more than $5 million and kill the plan.
Johnson, a retired union electrician at city-owned City Water,
Light & Power, is pushing for a “modified PLA” that would cover a more
limited part of the project, covering only infrastructure work.
The project’s construction cost is estimated at $18 million.
Financing costs and legal expenses, as well as funds to leverage state tax
credits and encourage private investment, would bring the total project cost to
an estimated $23 million. The project also would require approval from the
Illinois Housing Development Authority.
The City Council is considering spending $1 million in federal
block grant funds and $500,000 in from the Far East Tax-Increment Financing
District to assist in the project. The council could vote on the funding, and
the requested modified PLA, at its Feb. 18 meeting.
The projected increases in labor costs would disrupt the
complicated bundle of private and government financing for the proposed project
and prevent it from moving forward, according to Johnson and Mike Niehaus, the
owner of Springfield-based Windsor Homes, Nehemiah’s general contractor.
More than 350 people are on the waiting list to rent, and
potentially purchase, one of the 50 new two-, three- and four-bedroom homes in
phase five of the project, Johnson said.
Niehaus said 76 lots would be improved, with 41 of those lots
currently owned by the city and 35 acquired by Nehemiah over the years. Eleven
blighted buildings would be torn down, he said.
“I live in the neighborhood,” said Johnson, who has spearheaded
Nehemiah Expansion – a nonprofit branch of his church – and the related
construction of 120 homes on the east side in four earlier Nehemiah phases over
almost two decades. “It’s personal to me.”
But Brad Schaive, retired business manager of Laborers Local 477
in Springfield and a consultant speaking on behalf of building trades unions,
said the $5 million estimate of increased costs was “the biggest lie I’ve ever
heard in this room” and “a smokescreen.”
Schaive faulted Niehaus for failing to provide details backing up
the estimate of additional labor costs. Niehaus said he will have those details
for the council’s Feb. 18 meeting.
“We deserve respect,” Schaive told council members in front of the
overflowing crowd of people, many of them wearing bright orange vests. “We
deserve the right to fair pay, and we deserve a city council and a city that recognizes
that a PLA guarantees local,” he said. “It guarantees minority participation,
and it guarantees we will make sure people are provided for and the law is
followed. That makes many people nervous.”
Schaive said earlier phases of Nehemiah Expansion, which were
built without PLAs, made use of too many out-of-town contractors and not enough
minority workers. Niehaus disputed that statement.
Niehaus said few union contractors have bid on Nehemiah’s earlier
phases. Union contractors in central Illinois tend to focus on commercial and
not residential construction, he said.
Johnson said in a letter to council members that Windsor Homes “is
diligent in trying to hire minority-owned businesses and businesses utilizing
minority and female workers.”
Project labor agreements were allowed but not required on projects
that involved city funds until the council voted in summer 2023 to make PLAs a
requirement for all projects totaling more than $50,000.
The vote came after the election of Mayor Misty Buscher, who beat
the incumbent mayor, Jim Langfelder, and received more campaign contributions
from organized labor than Langfelder. Many council members have received
contributions from unions over the years.
According to the AFL-CIO, PLAs are “collective bargaining agreements
between building trade unions and contractors” and “govern terms and conditions
of employment for all craft workers – union and nonunion – on a construction
project. They protect taxpayers by eliminating costly delays due to labor
conflicts or shortages of skilled workers.”
Critics, such as the anti-union National Right to Work Legal
Defense Foundation, say PLAs “usually require contractors to grant union
officials monopoly bargaining privileges over all workers; use exclusive union
hiring halls; force workers to pay dues to keep their jobs; and pay
above-market prices resulting from wasteful work rules and featherbedding.”
Niehaus noted that Springfield city code says PLAs are required
“unless it has been determined that a project labor agreement would not advance
the city’s interests of cost, efficiency, quality, safety, timeliness, skilled
labor force and labor stability, and the city’s policy to advance
minority-owned or female-owned businesses, or businesses utilizing minority and
female workers.”
Niehaus said Windsor Homes always pays the federally required
“prevailing wage,” or the central Illinois average for all workers – union and
nonunion – who take part in residential projects.
PLAs in the state require prevailing wage rates set by the
Illinois Department of Labor. Those rates, he said, are higher, in many cases,
than overall regional prevailing wage rates because state rates are derived
from averages paid on commercial projects, which tend to be more expensive.
Council members didn’t ask any questions after the statements from
Schaive and the Nehemiah Expansion representatives. Ward 2 Ald. Shawn Gregory,
who represents the Nehemiah area, asked Nehemiah officials and labor unions to
work together on a compromise.
Schaive said Johnson and Niehaus are bluffing when they say a PLA
would sink the project.
“What they do is their business,” Schaive said. “I could care
less, honestly. The fact is the law here is a project labor agreement.”
Springfield resident Ken Pacha spoke during the meeting’s public
comment period and encouraged the council to not be swayed by labor unions.
“We have an opportunity to make a real change in this city,” he
said, “and if we fail to do that because we’re more worried about upsetting a
union, who cares? Stick a rat outside and cry me a river. They don’t give a
damn about those houses being built. They want the money, just like everybody
else.”
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City Council OKs east-side housing expansion
This article appears in The Wedding Issue 2025.
What always seems to get lost in articles like these are two things: 1, this housing development is a private development project, not public, and the contractor stands to make a healthy profit; and 2, they are asking for tax payer money to fund their private profits. The Illinois Times itself reported on Nehemiah previously, where they were intentionally blurring this line to take public money on one hand, then evade federal housing guidelines and push out renters that complained on the other: https://www.illinoistimes.com/news-opinion…
If our tax dollars are going to be spent to subsidize the profits of a construction company, they sure as heck can use local labor and pay the appropriate rate.
While the city council has been on the topic of conflicts of interest, they should all disclose how much campaign contributions they’ve accepted from local unions, especially Schaive and local 477. This should be an easy vote as it’s a matter of much needed economic development coming to the east side or being killed because Schaive has half the council and the Mayor in his pocket. Making all projects over $50k mandatory PLA is just another anti-Springfield & anti-growth policy from Buscher and again shows her policies revolve around who will contribute to her campaign coffers (Schaive) rather than doing what’s in the best interest of Springfield taxpayers.
The first thing to cut is the legal fees because this is common sense. The City of Springfield might benefit from counsel from the “average Joe” or maybe a Trump audit, who knows? 41 of the 76 lots belong to the city, therefore 41 lots already belong to the people. Taxes should not be a concern. The purpose of taxes is to provide revenue to fund the services that benefit the citizens. Housing projects fit that bill. Cut the tax liability for local businesses that donate material, it’s a contribution to the general welfare, the same as taxes. There shouldn’t be any out-of-town contractors. The people who live in the community and the city of Springfield should have priority preference in supplying labor. Otherwise the project doesn’t create jobs in the community. It creates “work” and “expense” instead of “opportunity” and “investment”. “Shop local” is more than just a catch phrase. It means shop for goods, services, and labor in the local market. Furthermore, the labor estimate needs immediate review. Labor costs have to be proportionate to the work being done. Work is an expenditure of energy. Those doing the most work should receive the most pay. Pushing paper is not the same as carrying wood. ty, therefore 41 lots already belong to the people.Taxes should not be a concern. The purpose of taxes is to provide revenue to fund the services that benefit the citizens. Housing projects fits the bill. Cut the tax liability for local businesses that donate material, it’s a contribution to the general welfare, the same as taxes. There shouldn’t be any out-of-town contractors. “Shop local” is more than a catch phrase; it means shop for goods, services, and labor in the local market. The people who live in the community and the city of Springfield should have priority preference in supplying labor. Otherwise the project doesn’t create jobs in the community. It creates “work” and “expense” instead of “opportunity” and “investment”. Tax money comes from People. People shop at businesses and the businesses pay taxes. It doesn’t matter whether people pay rent or a mortgage, their money pays the property taxes. The city’s money is the people’s money. The City is supposed to be good stewards of the money.
Today, I guess, the computer will post whatever it wants.