“There’s no work for … maybe half of us throughout the winter. It’s the worst part of this field, in my opinion, because it’s an outdoor job, and it’s miserable, harsh conditions all winter,” Dan Vandam ’15 said. “And then, usually we’ll get rehired [at the end of the season], but sometimes, we just won’t, because [they] found somebody new.”
Vandam is one of many local construction workers who are frequently laid off in the winter months without guarantee of rehire.
As a construction inspector, Vandam worked on the North Campus Residential Expansion project, which was completed in 2022. Before finals week, construction workers working on the NCRE project began receiving noise complaints from students living in nearby dorms. The administration eventually paused construction during finals week to abide by quiet study hours.
Although quiet work could be completed, the crew was unable to operate heavy machinery. Vandam explained that since workers didn’t have work, they couldn’t get paid.
In addition to the seasonal nature of project-based construction work, Vandam said that working in Ithaca’s construction industry is the most spontaneous lifestyle he’s ever had.
“You never know if there’s going to be a new … job downtown, … if it’s going to start tomorrow or in three years. … We have no idea how much we’re going to be able to get done, how much we’re going to get paid,” Vandam said. “You have to be really flexible, so it’s hard for my personal life.”
Prof. Ian Greer M.S. ’03 Ph.D. ’05, ILR, director of the ILR Ithaca Co-Lab, stated that in project-based work, job precarity and unguaranteed rehire is an “extremely common feature” of the construction industry. In these situations, Greer explained, trade unions play a significant role in advocating for worker’s rights, ensuring better quality of living and mitigating the nature of project-based work in unpredictable weather.
Todd Bruer, Ithaca Electricians Union manager and Tompkins-Cortland Building and Construction Trade Council president, tries to find jobs in nearby cities including Elmira, Binghamton and Syracuse for workers in his union who are laid off. However, finding work during slow periods poses a more challenging task for those without unions.
“People without a union don’t have the luxury of having someone like myself and my organizer trying to find work for them,” Bruer said. “They’re doing that on their own.”
According to Bruer, some workers are advised to avoid unions and are faced with misinformation about unionization. However, Bruer thinks that the benefits of joining a union outweigh any potential disadvantages.
“In a city like Ithaca, I cannot understand why there’s so much opposition to unions,” Bruer said. “The better the unions do, the better everyone is going to do. We look out for each other. We’re there for each other.”
While the NCRE project, composed entirely of unionized workers, finished ahead of schedule and under budget in 2022, the Maplewood Apartments project experienced delays due to labor problems and a wet construction season. Bruer attributed, in part, the NCRE’s success to the difference between working with unionized workers, especially through the winter season during the pandemic.
Greer explained that unions negotiate project-labor agreements to set the terms of projects before formal hiring. Project-labor agreements are collective bargaining agreements between building trade unions and project owners. Under these agreements, the workers are paid according to the collective agreement, which typically prevents workers from going on strike during the project.
In exchange for implementing project-labor agreements, employment guarantees for apprentices may also be included, so contractors may only use apprenticeship programs to source some workers. Additionally, the agreements may include diversity, equity and inclusion targets, diversifying traditionally homogenous workspaces.
“We’re trying to get Cornell to go down the road of using project-labor agreements,” Greer said. “And I think that there would have been a really good argument to make to Cornell based on diversity, equity and inclusion, because you can put related targets into project labor agreements.”
Avery Wang ’27 is a Sun contributor and can be reached at [email protected].