For the 1,500 construction workers now on-the-job at Providence Place it appears the unemployment lines will not be their destiny after the 1.35 million-square-foot shopping complex is finished. Completion of the $450 million mall project may in fact ease an ongoing skilled-labor shortage, instead of creating worry for construction workers and contractors about where their next paycheck will come from, said Eric Anderson, executive director of the Rhode Island Chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America. Providence Place is one of the largest construction projects ever undertaken in Rhode Island, if not the largest.
“People in a way might be relieved, because there is a shortage of skilled help,” said Anderson, indicating contractors are struggling to fill carpentry, electrical, mechanical, masonry and laborer jobs. “That’s been in the past four or five months when the mall is done it would ease up the labor shortage for other projects that are starting up.”
“Everybody that wants to work in my union is working right now,” said Jack Cronin, business agent for the Plumbers & Pipefitters, which has 850 working members.
“We’ve been going out of state to get enough people,” Cronin added. “Wherever we can get them from; -Massachusetts is booming too- they’re calling us, we’re calling them.”
The mall’s developers, who want to open on Aug. 20, reached a peak number of 1,500 construction workers on site this month and that figure could increase to as many as 1,750 before opening day, according to Michael M. Doyle, a spokesman for Commonwealth Development Group. Of those workers 150 to 175 are from the Laborers Union Local 271, about 120 are from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 99, and another 200 are from the Plumbers & Pipefitters Local Union 51.
“There are labor shortages now from the Canadian border, including Maine, all the way down to the Carolinas,” said Thomas J. Lynch, business manager of the 700-member IBEW. “If we took the mall out of the equation right now, I would take the 120 or so electricians and place them in jobs as we speak.”
Even with its efforts to recruit people for its five-year apprentice program – which graduates about 20 journeymen electricians a year – the IBEW is having trouble keeping up with the demand for electricians, Lynch said. There are now about 70 union electricians here from other states, he said.
This worker shortage has also contributed to delays in building some of Providence Place’s 150 stores and created a few other tough moments for Commonwealth Development, Doyle said. Only 60 to 75 stores, including Nordstrom, are expected to be ready on Aug. 20.
“The carpenters are literally trying to pull workers out of union halls as far as Florida,” Doyle said. “We’ve exhausted the union halls here.”
The developers expected some trouble finding enough construction workers, because of the project’s size.
“I think we thought it would result in the extension of the union boundaries , I don’t think anyone thought it would go as far as Florida,” Doyle said. “The economic boom we’re experiencing here is being experienced elsewhere.
“It has been challenging for some of the stores; some of the stores have found it difficult to secure contractors,” he added. “Some of the slippage of store openings is because there aren’t firms available. There were times we were short on masons, so there were some delays there.
“We’re still pushing for August 20th we think we’ll make it,” Doyle said.
Whatever Providence Place’s actual opening date is, it doesn’t seem that day will mark the end of what Anderson called “close to full-employment for the construction industry.” But, the contractors’ association director added, “certainly there will be a slow down.”
Some union officials interviewed for this story said it has been awhile since they’ve been this busy.
“You’d have to go back ‘aways,’ maybe early ’80s or the mid ’80s; after that things slowed up some. But we’re riding a good crest,” said Ronald Coia, business manager for the Rhode Island Laborers District Council, which is the parent organization of the Laborers Union Local 271.
“Unions always worry about work; especially in the construction industry, it’s extremely cyclical,” Coia said. “You’ll have periods of time when it’s slow this is an up time.”
Among the projects expected to keep construction workers busy over the next few years: Fidelity’s planned expansion in Smithfield; a new Providence police and fire station; several hotel projects; a 7,500-square-foot battle space lab at Newport’s Naval Undersea Warfare Center, for which ground was broken on June 14; and new power plants in Tiverton and Johnston, which may require 600 to 700 workers. There will also be work finishing stores inside the mall, as well as a planned river walk and other details, according to Doyle.
“I see three or four more good years like this,” Cronin said.
“There are a number of schools, new hotels, a number of manufacturing plants, it’s yet to be understood what’s going on at Quonset, work at CVS,” said the IBEW’s Lynch. “If the economy stays strong I see no reasons why we couldn’t carry this off for the next few years.”
