The News & Advance
by Liz Ramos
The Atlantic Coast Pipeline announced Friday it has signed Project Labor Agreements with four of the nation’s leading building and construction trade unions.
The ACP is a controversial $5 billion, 600-mile natural gas project slated to run from West Virginia to North Carolina through Virginia. The pipeline would go through a 27-mile stretch in Nelson County.
“The agreements reaffirm the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project’s commitment to hiring skilled union workers for the pipeline’s construction,” said a news release issued Friday by Dominion Energy, the lead partner of the project.
The agreements were signed with Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA), Teamsters National Pipeline, International Union of Operating Engineers and the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States, according to the news release.
According to the news release, the four trade unions are responsible for hiring and training the 13,000 construction workers needed to build the pipeline, half of whom will be hired through local union membership in West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina.
The unions also committed to hiring at least 25 percent of individuals joining the trade unions for the first time from the local communities where the pipeline will be built, the news release said.
Dennis Martire, LiUNA’s vice president and mid-Atlantic regional manager, said the ACP is “the biggest job-creating infrastructure project we’ve seen in our region for many decades.”
“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rebuild our region’s infrastructure and bring back the middle-class jobs that have disappeared from too many of our communities,” Martire said in the news release. “Our members live in these communities, so we have a personal stake in doing this the right way and with the utmost care for safety and the environment.”
The unions also are offering free local training and apprenticeship programs, allowing local residents to “develop new skills and gain real-world experience in the industry,” and upon completion of the ACP’s construction, “many will go on to pursue long-term careers in the building and construction trades.”
Through the Helmets to Hardhats program, the unions will provide job opportunities to many local veterans, according to the release. Helmets to Hardhats is a national nonprofit program connecting National Guard, Reserve and retired and transitioning active-duty military service members with skilled training and quality career opportunities in the construction industry.
“This project is going to be a game changer for working people in our region, including our veterans,” said Matt Yonka, president of the Virginia State Building and Construction Trades Council, in the release. “We’re talking about thousands of new jobs for men and women who have spent their careers developing their craft and contributing to our economy.”
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