The American Arbitration Association’s Northeast Case Management Center has opened for business in East Providence, with plans to employ 200 people there by the end of next year.
The center, which is the organization’s largest, began accepting new cases on July 2, said Christine Newhall, senior vice president of AAA. Operating at an interim facility at 401 Wampanoag Trail, the center will move to a new building on Warren Avenue in East Providence, housing AAA and others next year.
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Founded in 1926, the non-profit American Arbitration Association provides conflict management and dispute resolution services to various industries. It is widely used in labor-management disputes.
Headquartered in New York City, it operates 38 offices in the United States, and has 53 cooperative agreements with similar institutions in 38 countries. The Northeast Case Management Center is one of four case management centers in the country.
AAA did not arrive in East Providence without considering other sites, Newhall said. With the help of a consultant, the organization conducted a year-long review of possible locations, ranging from Michigan to New Jersey and further north, before making its decision last fall. What put Rhode Island ahead of other contenders was its workforce, quality of life, and accessibility — with Amtrak and T.F. Green Airport nearby.
A grant to cover training costs sweetened the incentives. According to Lori Warren, account executive at the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation (EDC), EDC officials met with representatives of AAA last fall, discussing the funding available to AAA to train new workers here.
“Workforce availability and training is big to them — they like to have skilled people,” Warren said.
Through a set-aside funding program provided by the state’s Human Resource Investment Council (administered by the Department of Labor and Training), AAA received $114,237 to train new workers here, Warren said. The fund exists to provide training in both new and existing business, she said, and is supported through a “very small percentage” (.15 percent) of the payroll tax.
The EDC gets funding from HRIC each year – “usually about $1 million in set-aside funding” — for new job creation, Warren said. As long as companies can show they are increasing their net employment — and they must maintain that increase for three years — they are eligible for funding, she said. The new jobs must pay at least $9.23 per hour (or 150 percent of the state minimum wage). Companies seeking funding must fill out an application presenting a training plan, which is reviewed by a committee of HRIC members.
AAA began hiring staff for its East Providence office in April. The center will mainly employ workers to provide case management for arbitration and mediation of commercial and construction disputes, but not labor disputes, said Kathy Shanks, the vice president of the new facility. There are 35 employees at the office so far, and she expects 100 will be at work within a year.
When her office moves to the Warren Avenue location, it will occupy 2.5 floors of a four-story building, or 40,000 to 60,000 square feet of space.
