By Jason Fincke, Executive Director
Builders Guild of Western Pennsylvania, Inc.

When deciding whether to build in Western Pennsylvania, developers and owners have to consider numerous business factors, including the value of property, location and transportation access, labor costs, opportunities for expansion, local taxes and overall business climate. Each of these issues can make or break the construction of a major commercial, residential or industrial development.

Two other ingredients, however, that are absolutely imperative to attracting development are the quality and availability of the local workforce. Can developers and owners be certain that their facilities can be constructed on time and on budget? Is the local talent pool deep enough to meet a demanding schedule? Is their a good local work ethic in place?

Contrary to popular myth, an area that has a strong union history such as exists in Western Pennsylvania is not in itself a positive or a negative. Economic development directors will be the first to say that developers and owners don’t particularly care whether the local workforce is represented or not. They just want to know whether the workers are competent and in sufficient numbers to get the job done.

That is why it is so important that members of the area’s union building trades commit themselves to their profession and to their fellow union workers. Being properly trained and continuously educated on new equipment, construction techniques and other technologies are important parts of the equation. Showing up at a worksite everyday on time and ready to put in a full day’s work are equally critical.

Nothing will turn a developer or owner off faster than an unreliable and unproductive workforce. While labor rates are an important factor, value is more important. That means doing the job right the first time, every time.

As executive director of the Builders Guild of Western Pennsylvania, I am proud to promote the men and women of the building trades and the contractors which employ them. The training that goes into being a skilled union craftsman is impressive and unmatched. It is largely what sets our members apart from non-union workers.

But training alone is not enough to attract development to this region. It takes a work ethic and a work record of completing projects as envisioned and desired by owners and developers. Nothing short of a competent, committed work force which takes pride in their work will keep union building trades’ workers employed and in demand.