Plumbers, Pipefitters, Companies Seek Shale Jobs
BOARDMAN, Ohio – The plumbers and pipefitters who work out of Local 396 union hall here want the “first opportunity” to put their skills to work in the Utica shale play. To underscore why job opportunities should come to them first, ther leadership invited oil and gas contractors and fabricators to bear witness.
“Our goal is to get a better understanding of what our needs are and to work together getting local jobs, local work, putting ourselves forward for this industry,” said Butch Taylor, who organized a luncheon and discussion Thursday at the union hall. Taylor is business manager for Local 396 of the Plumbers and Pipefitters union. Representatives from about a dozen companies working –- or seeking work –- in the shale industry attended the event, along with U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, R-6 Ohio, who said his role is to “help make the connections.”
Johnson has met with executives from Chesapeake Energy and other companies active in the Utica shale. “The companies have certainly been made aware that we’re expecting this to be a permanent prosperity boom for the people of Ohio, that this is not a drive-by,” he said. “My focus is on creating jobs.”
Contractors who attended the meeting told what they do and why they value the skills of union plumbers and pipefitters.
Frank Gambino, vice president and operations manager of DeCal Inc.’s 9-month-old operation in Youngstown’s Salt Springs Industrial Park, said his mechanical contracting company is “seeing more inquiries, requests for quotes surrounding this industry than we expected, and we’re already planning an expansion at our facility.”
Gambino complimented union skilled trades for providing a “safe, productive workforce that a lot of our out-of-state competition does not bring”
Mike Hutchinson, operations manager for Kentucky-based Tri County Construction Co. agreed.
“We work in western Pennsylvania and part of our role there, in the Marcellus Shale, was bringing some union contractors into the natural gas industry,” Hutchinson said. ‘Unions offer a large labor pool, and bring a unique skill set to the piping part of the industry, to the compressor stations and to the gas processing facilities.”
Even so, union pipefitters must compete with nonunion workers for work in the Marcellus shale, Hutchinson said, “and some of the natural gas companies have contractors they’re familiar with, that work for them elsewhere, and they bring these folks with them.”
Which is exactly what Local 396 doesn’t want to happen here.
“We’re adding apprentices, downhill welders [a technique the shale industry requires],” Taylor said. “We’re involved in pipeline work, we’re involved with the processing plants, some of things they are doing with the compressor plants, as well as some of the things you see with the GM plant and the steel mills.”
Taylor’s union is positioning its expertise through branding and public relations, retaining ShaleComm, a Boardman company that will “help the plumbers and pipefitters best communicate their competitive edge,” says Vince Bevacqua, executive vice president of ShaleComm.
And the union is seeking a $65,000 federal grant to fund specialized training related to the shale industry, and soon will apply for a similar grant from its international union, said Marty Loney, Local 396 training director.
U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-17 Ohio, and his Republican colleague, Johnson, are working with federal officials to secure the training grant, he noted.
During Thursday’s meeting, Taylor surprised reporters by announcing Local 396 is supporting Johnson in his re-election bid against Democrat Charlie Wilson.
Johnson said the region’s new shale industry is not only significant because of its economic impact but also because of its potential to produce cheaper sources of energy.
Recalling John Kennedy’s vow to send a man to the moon in 10 years, which NASA accomplished in seven, Johnson concluded, “If we do this right, we’re going to see a return to American exceptionalism like we haven’t seen since the 1960s.”
Copyright 2012 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.