KALAMAZOO - Underway at Borgess Medical Center is one of the largest construction projects in Western Michigan - but union building trades are expected to make up only 25 percent of the job.

That low percentage of organized labor is an outrage to the Southwest Building Trades Organizers, a group of union representatives who have tried and failed to get more union subcontractors hired on the project. In the past, union contractors have had a good record of securing work at Borgess.

"This job could be a very big source of employment for the union building trades," said Michigan Building Trades Council Business Rep. Terry Strunk. "But the parties involved have not been willing to sit down and talk with us. We want to make certain that Borgess understands where we're coming from, and why we're taking this to our membership."

Borgess Medical Center is a 426-bed hospital, with 1,742 full-time employees. Last year, Borgess announced its intention to undertake the three-year renovation project. Plans are to spend $76.9 million on a three-phase project that 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. Work began in July, beginning with the parking structure.

Borgess hired American Village Builders (AVB) of Kalamazoo to manage the project as the general contractor. The firm has had a less-than-stellar record of hiring union, and has set dual union-nonunion gates at the hospital site. Based on the subcontractors listed on the signs at the gate, the project is expected to go about 75 percent nonunion.

"We polled most of our local unions and insurance administrators and found that union building trades members spent $2.5 million for medical care at Borgess, and that was just in 2000," said Southwest Building Trades Organizers President Larry Tolbert of Asbestos Workers Local 47. "We have a good record of work with Borgess, and we think that if our members give that kind of money to the hospital, we deserve a lot more consideration when it comes time to do their work."

Union reps have continually been frustrated in attempting to turn the situation around. Randall Stasik, president and CEO of Borgess Health Alliance, referred inquiries to Eric Buzzell, the executive director, general services and property management at Borgess.

Buzzell's written response to the Southwest Michigan Building Trades Council dated Sept. 26 stated: "To ensure this project is efficiently and effectively managed, Borgess has contracted with AVB Inc. to manage this project. Consistent with their recommendation, Borgess has opened the bidding to qualified local contractors, both union and nonunion, to ensure that a high quality of work is performed at a reasonable cost." Buzzell reaffirmed Borgess' stance in a Nov. 30 letter to Strunk of the building trades.

Union reps have written other letters and made phone calls to the Ascension Health Board of Trustees, a Catholic organization headquartered in St. Louis that serves as the corporate umbrella for Borgess and 37 other health systems. At least one board member was somewhat helpful, but the trustees ultimately have been unwilling to put any pressure on the leadership at Borgess to hire more union contractors.

"Basically, we're at a point where we're appealing to our members who use Borgess Hospital to approach the people in charge at the hospital, and urge them to hire union contractors," Strunk said.

The goal of the Southwest Michigan Building Trades Organizers is to send a message to leaders at Borgess and Ascension Health that their decision to use nonunion contractors has a severe, negative impact on working people who live in the community - people with health care insurance plans made possible by their union affiliation.

Borgess and the building trades unions have enjoyed a good working relationship for decades. The hospital has been built and maintained by fairly paid skilled trades workers who do the job right the first time. The building trades workers who do work at Borgess and on other projects are paid a fair, collectively bargained wage that allows them to earn a decent income, with a pension and health care insurance that covers them into their retirement years.

Shunning union workers on this project will help erode community pay and benefit standards. It will deprive the hospital of a skilled workforce. And the hospital's cold shoulder is likely to garner ill feelings from workers and family members who are quite often patients at the hospital. Borgess may or may not save money in the short term by hiring nonunion workers - but it is likely to cost them in the long run.

If you live in a community served by Borgess Medical Center or one of its satellite facilities, or if you utilize medical services at Borgess, we're providing an opportunity for you to express your feelings about this $76.9 million project that only has a 25 percent union workforce.

If you wish to share your feelings about Borgess' decision to hire a general contractor that is so supportive of nonunion contractors, you can write a letter to the people named below. Feel free to clip out this article and send it along, also.

It's a simple way to get their attention, and we think it will be an effective method to let them know how their decision could affect the long-term health-care provider choices of consumers in the building trades unions.

VIEW OF Borgess Medical Center in Kalamazoo.

Donald Brennan 
President/CEO 
Ascension Health Board of Trustees 
P.O. Box 45998 
4600 Edmundson Rd.
St. Louis, MO 63145

Randall Stasik
Borgess Health Alliance
1521 Gull Rd.
Kalamazoo, MI 49048