From Virginia to Maine, Hundreds of Longshoremen Take a Stand at New London’s State Pier

 Brendan Crowley

NEW LONDON – The UHL Fierce returned to State Pier with a second shipment of 318-foot blades from Denmark for the South Fork Wind project under development by the partnership of Eversource and Ørsted, but longshoremen weren’t unloading them on Wednesday.

Instead, the members of the International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1411 in New London were outside the gate picketing – joined by hundreds of ILA longshoremen from locals stretching from Virginia to Maine, all protesting the decision to award work on the pier’s new heavy-lift crane to another union.

Jim Paylor, ILA assistant general organizer and co-chair of the ILA’s wind committee, told the assembled crowd that the fight in New London was bigger than New London. And New London longshoremen’s problem was all longshoremen’s problem.

“If you give up the crane operation, then in every location along the East Coast where they’re gonna have wind, they’ll want to use the Operating Engineers to perform our work to load and unload vessels,” Paylor said. “If we allow that to happen, that will start a slippery slope where they can say they’re involved in our jurisdiction, and all the crane operators that we have that do a fabulous job could be threatened by that.”

Ørsted dismissed the protest as a jurisdictional dispute between the ILA and the Operating Engineers, but for the longshoremen climbed aboard buses in Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York and across the eastern seaboard to join the protest, it was a fight to protect their claim to work stevedoring for the offshore wind industry across the coast.

At the center of the issue is a 500-foot tall, green crane Siemens Gamesa shipped to New London to load the massive turbines onto ships to bring them out to the South Fork site off the coast of Long Island. 

The longshoremen say operating that crane should be their work, but a project labor agreement with the Connecticut State Building Trades Council assigns that work to the Operating Engineers.

Paylor told the crowd that it’s a piece of equipment that isn’t being used in ports across the East Coast, but it performs a similar function.

“It takes the cargo from the hooking off point, and puts it in a place of rest. That’s our work,” Paylor said. “The cranes are our work.”

After the pier shut down in spring 2020, the longshoremen who have worked there since the 1930s were out of work. It was three years before they had more work at the pier, and ILA 1411 business manager Peter Olsen said he thinks most people expected the ILA to just go away.

They didn’t go away, but Olsen said the problem now is that nobody in the local is trained to use the crane. 

He said he’s been asking Ørsted to get them trained for three years, and they haven’t. Ørsted said they have “repeatedly” offered funding for training that the ILA rejected. Recently, he said the port operator Gateway Terminal stepped in and sent a group of ILA 1411 workers to Texas to get the training, but the labor agreement has already given that work to someone else.

“Before my time they had steam winches. In my time we just did regular winches, and then they brought cranes in, so we’ve been evolving with the industry,” Olsen said. “To say we can’t run that train was ridiculous to me. Give us the training and we will perform as good or better than anyone else.”

Keith Brothers, president of the Connecticut Building Trades, who negotiated the labor agreement on behalf of member unions including the Operating Engineers, said they consider the cranes and any other work in the lay down area to be their construction work.

“The equipment and everything coming off the vessels clearly is their work, but once that hits the ground and they give it to us to assemble, that’s all covered under the labor agreement, and it’s exclusively building trades work,” Brothers said. “So you can claim whatever you want, but without qualified people to do the work, I’m just surprised that they’re even trying to claim it.”

Allison Ziogas, Ørsted’s head of U.S. Labor Relations, said in a written statement that the issue is a “jurisdictional dispute” between the two unions, and Ørsted can’t be the arbiter. But Olsen said his issue isn’t with another union, it’s with Ørsted not honoring the ILA’s jurisdiction. 

“Anything I say is against the developer. I’m not against any other unions,” Olsen said. “They’re just doing what somebody asked them to do. We’re just saying that for our work, historically and going forward, we’re not going down without a fight.”

He even declined to name the other union in the dispute to CT Examiner, though others didn’t have the same hesitation.

“The Operating Engineers are a bunch of fucking rat mother-fucking scumbags,” one longshoreman from Baltimore told the crowd, to loud applause.

Brothers said the Operating Engineers were given that piece of work because they have people trained to use the equipment. He said the building trades build things. They aren’t looking to operate the port or take longshoremen’s jobs, but they aren’t going to stand by when the longshoremen try to claim their work, Brothers said.

“Today, clearly we walked through the picket line and went to work,” Brothers said. “We have an agreement, so that’s what we did.”

Hundreds of longshoremen gathered at the pier, many brought in on buses. Workers with the accents of Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore chanted “ILA” and “go away” as New London Police directed workers through the crowd onto the pier.

Brothers said he represents Connecticut workers, and said it was a “shame” that people from out of state were blocking Connecticut residents from entering the job site.

“That’s a fight against yourself, I believe,” Brothers said. “If that’s what the ILA wants to do… They need to be a part of the solution, that this morning was a problem.”

Olsen said the ILA is looking to grow its membership and get people trained. They don’t just want the jobs sweeping up the pier, he said – they want the work they’ve been doing at the pier since the 1930s. He said a strong ILA is essential to keeping the pier operating smoothly.

On a recent Sunday they had a delay on site. Another ship was coming in, but they didn’t think they could get anything done until Monday. Olsen said he got a call around 3 p.m. asking if a crew could come down. By 5 p.m. they were down at the pier offloading the ship.

“I can’t overstate the importance of the ILA having a local workforce,” Olsen said. “They need to keep things moving.”

New Canaan's new police station to cost $29M. When will construction begin?

Shantel Guzman

NEW CANAAN — After years of work and getting its necessary approvals in place over the summer, the Police Department Building Committee is nearing a construction date.

In a recent update to the Town Council, members of the committee talked about finances, among other business: On Sept. 19, the Board of Selectmen approved nearly $360,000 to start construction of the project, which is expected to cost about $29 million.

Selectman Nick Williams said the town has talked about a new police station since he was first elected to the board. 

"Hallelujah it's about time," Williams said. "We were talking about a new police station when I took office in 2011…it's great we're finally moving forward now."

The town has a contract with SLAM Collaborative, an architecture group with an office in Glastonbury, to renovate the police station. Turner Construction Company joined the project in March. SLAM was involved in the Saxe Middle School renovation; Turner was involved in redesigning the New Canaan Library. 

The Police Department building was built in 1926 and was last renovated in 1981.

On Aug. 29, the Police Department Building Committee approved a guaranteed maximum price of  $20,235,000 for the project along with $1.9 million for contingency costs, $2 million for the temporary relocation of the department during construction and another $4.8 million for costs not specifically related to building construction. Joe Zagarenski, the town's senior engineer, said the entire project should total about $29 million, a budget total approved by the Board of Selectmen on Sept. 5.

"The last time we presented to the Board of Selectmen, the Board of Finance and the Town Council, the budgets were $20 million for construction, $5 million for soft costs, $2 million two for the temporary (police department)... so we're we're right where we presented, Zagarenski said on Sept. 5. "It's the same project, it's just further developed and competitively bid now."

Developer breaks ground on 100-unit development in New Britain

Construction of the 100-unit apartment complex at the site of the former Strand Theater in New Britain has officially kicked off following a ceremony this week.

City officials joined New York Developer Avner Krohn on Tuesday for a groundbreaking of The Strand, a six-story, roughly 86,000-square-foot mixed-use apartment building at 157 Main St. In addition to 100 studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units, Krohn said the development will include about 3,600 square feet of retail and restaurant space.

City officials said the project is expected to take about 16 months to complete.

Strand Theater was a landmark in downtown for nearly five decades as a movie theater and live performance venue before closing in 1972, and the new development aims to honor that legacy by transforming the existing parking lot on the property into a mixed-use site. The new building’s interior will have movie reel-themed designs, a movie theater and rooftop area with fire pits and seating areas, Krohn said.

“It was a no-brainer when we looked at the site and history — this was The Strand, we didn’t need a marketing company to come up with that one,” Krohn said Tuesday.

Mayor Erin Stewart said the “iconic” former venue was a cornerstone of the city and representative of the city’s downtown. She said the units reserved for affordable housing are an important component of the project. Krohn said 20 of the units will be set aside as affordable units while 80 will be market-rate.

“When we’re talking about the downtown that once was, damn we’re making our way back,” Stewart said. “When all of these businesses closed down and all of these apartments left, when no one wanted to live in a downtown area, that was when downtown New Britain became desolate, and project after project we’re moving forward with getting people back.”

In August, Krohn’s development was named one of eight Connecticut projects sharing $23 million from the latest round of the Connecticut Communities Challenge Grant program. The Strand will receive $4 million through the program, Krohn said.

Krohn has been active in New Britain in recent months, launching several housing and mixed-use projects in the Hardware City.