KALAMAZOO - The ongoing $76.9 million project to renovate Borgess Medical Center is expected to take three years. And if necessary during that period, local building trades leaders are vowing to continue voicing their objections to the health care facility's use of a nonunion, out-of-area workforce being paid substandard wages.

American Village Builders (AVB) is managing the project, and continues to hire a 75 percent nonunion workforce. In protest, the Southwest Michigan Building Trades Organizers have written letters and called on the medical center's Board of Trustees and its parent company, Ascension Health. They have also had very good shows of support on picket lines in front of the hospital. And two weeks ago, union workers hand-billed many of the 70-plus satellite offices that are affiliated with Borgess.

"The people at Borgess haven't budged on anything," said Southwest Building Trades Organizers President Larry Tolbert of Asbestos Workers Local 47. "But we're not going anywhere either; and we're in this for the long haul."

Work at Borgess began last July, and the renovations will include a new parking structure, consolidation of outpatient diagnostic and treatment services, and miscellaneous campus improvements, including converting most semi-private rooms into private rooms.

On the day the pickets first appeared Feb. 1, an internal letter from Borgess to its employees said that the health care organization "stands firm in its commitment to the open market bidding process and will not be pressured to reverse this decision."

Borgess has a fairly good history of hiring union, but that all changed when they were acquired by their new parent company, Ascension Health.

Among the building crafts, the pipe trades have the most workers on the project, but they may soon join other unions in becoming extinct at the Borgess renovation.

"AVB has told us that they're not happy with the union demonstrations," said Bob Williams, Business Manager of Plumbers and Pipe Fitters Local 357. "They have told us that we may lose work on this project. There's a good amount of work in there, but at some point, you have to take a stand."