NILES Group protests prisoners as laborers

A spokesman said it's not a union issue.
By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
NILES -- Referring to some state legias," members of the Western Reserve Building and Construction Trades Councislators as "the Grinches who are stealing Christmas," members of the Western Reserve Building and Construction Trades Council protested this morning as prisoners worked inside a former school building.
As inmates from Ohio Penal Industries continued to remove asbestos from the former Edison Junior High School, the council's members gathered and talked about their perceived injustices of having prisoners do the work of law-abiding citizens.
"We have workers who are traveling all over the country trying to find work so they can feed their families," said Darrell Tibbs, business manager for Laborers' International Union of North America Local 935 of Trumbull County. "And here's jobs right in their back yard being taken away from them."
Jim Burgham, secretary-treasurer for the Youngstown-based council, said members are protesting the use of Ohio State Penitentiary prisoners, saying they are undermining area standards and taking jobs.
"It's not even an issue of them not using union workers," Burgham said. "It's about using prisoners to perform work that should be done by local residents."
Approved contract
The Niles board of education approved the $500,000 contract last month to use prison workers to remove asbestos so the Church Street building can eventually be torn down. Board members earlier this year were forced to throw out all bids for demolition after the state raised concerns over asbestos in the structure.
Nine hand-picked inmates from OPI will spend about five months removing asbestos from the former school.
Thomas H. Warga, business manager for Laborers' Local 125, said the council holds nothing against the school board or the administration, saying they were led by the Ohio Schools Facility Commission to believe they had to use the workers from OPI.
Schools Superintendent Patrick N. Guliano said the demolition of Edison is just one portion of the total construction project for the new middle school. He said that since OSFC is overseeing the project, they deemed it best to use workers from OPI, who are considered state workers.
"It's like if the city wanted to pave streets, they could either use their own workers in the street department, or they could go out to bid and use an outside company," he said.
In this case, he said, OSFC decided to use its own workers.
The school, first built in 1917 as the city's high school, was closed at the end of school last summer once construction was completed on the new Niles Middle School.
In addition to concerns over not using local workers, Burgham said, council members also have security concerns.
"Some of our guys already visited the site and found there was only one unarmed security officer supervising the workers," he said. "I don't think they ever made people who live in that area aware of that."
Ohio Penal Industries will routinely bid on jobs, promoting the use of nonviolent criminal offenders as low-cost labor.
"If Gov. Taft wanted to create $40 million in jobs for people in this state, all he would have to do is close OPI," Warga said. "That's just crazy to give that work to prisoners, especially when it's at the expense of honest citizens."
Council members plan to return next week for another protest, and have invited area legislators to join them.
slshaulis@vindy.com