Crown Point Sportsplex work continues despite union strike
By Carrie Napoleon Post-Tribune correspondent June 29, 2011 5:52PM
Brandon Goodman with McAllister, Inc. uses a shovel as infrastructure and grading work goes on at one of the playing fields at the Sportsplex construction site in Crown Point, Ind. Wednesday June 29, 2011. | Stephanie Dowell~Sun-Times Media
Updated: October 30, 2011 12:39AM
CROWN POINT — A labor agreement between the city and the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 approved last week has helped to get the Sportsplex project back on track despite the union’s weeks-long strike.
Now that a tentative labor agreement has been reached between contractors and the union, work also will soon start again on myriad other projects throughout the city sidelined by the work action.
Mayor David Uran said it was necessary to negotiate the agreement to keep the Sportsplex project on track due to the large number of children relying on the completion of the complex for fall sports programs. More than 900 children participate in Pop Warner football. Another 1,200-plus youngsters will use the site for soccer.
Uran said prior to the start of the Sportsplex project the city entered into project labor agreements (PLAs) with all the various trades to prevent a work stoppage due to a strike. Essentially the city and unions agreed the city will use all union labor for the work and in exchange the workers would not strike.
“All of the other trades signed off; Local 150 did not,” Uran said.
He reached out to the union because without the one or two operators needed at the site the other trades were not able to perform their work, pushing the project off schedule. Uran said the union came through for the city.
Ed Maher, spokesman for the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150, said PLAs are common agreements often signed on time-sensitive projects. Agreements are signed on a project-by-project basis before work begins to prevent stoppages from strikes.
“The city came to us and asked us to consider the circumstances, a sports center for a bunch of kids,” Maher said.
Uran said this was the city’s first project labor agreement and it does not have similar agreements on various road projects under way throughout town. He said negotiating an agreement for road projects would have been much more difficult due to the large number of operators on each of those jobs and the fact no PLAs were in place.
“We knew this was a very important project, not to say the others are not important,” Uran said. He said there are still roads for residents to use while the work is stopped and the road work will eventually be complete, but if the complex isn’t finished on time, there is no place for the youngsters to start their fall sports seasons.
Tris Miles, city director of engineering, said motorists can expect to see possible closures next week on North Street at Indiana and Summit streets as work resumes. He said once the roads are resurfaced, the lights at those intersections will be properly timed to better move traffic.
Comments Click here to view or make a comment