Union picketers from the Ironworkers Local 40 Union gathered at the entrances to Pace Pleasantville several days last week.

Protests were the result of alleged discrimination of the union workers by S&M Iron Works, based in Rock Tavern, NY, during the bidding process for the Pace Master Plan.

The protesters stated that Kirchhoff Consigli Construction Management (KCCM)—Pace’s construction manager for the Master Plan—discriminated, through its subcontractor, against unions who tried to participate.

Kevin O’Rourke, the union’s president, stated that M&S pays substandard wages to its employees, and offers no benefits and no apprenticeship program. O’Rourke emphasized that an apprenticeship program enables workers to acquire proper skills and develop their work into a career.

O’Rourke also said that M&S brings in out-of-state workers, thus affecting local workers, many of which struggle to find a job.

The resulting confusion from these pickets caused the university to place signs reserving some entrances for the protesters and others for the workers. Protesters were asked to relocate to entrance two.

The foundation for this protest goes back to when Pace hired KCCM to choose the construction companies that would be incorporated into the construction of the Master Plan.  The workers from the union complained that KCCM was unjustly choosing non-union workers over union workers purely on a cost basis, shutting them out of the bidding process to land a spot on the job.

The pickets and these allegations caused Pace’s Office of Administration to send out a mass email defending KCCM, stating that it did not discriminate with the Unions and in fact had open conversations with them.

“KCCM employs on site for the project a mix of union and non-union subcontractors,” the email read. “We anticipate that this multi-phase project will create more than 600 construction jobs of which more than half will be union jobs.”

When contacted, S&M refused to comment.

KCCM stands by their actions stating that there was a fair bidding process that resulted in those with the ability to do job the best and with the least resources winning the positions.

In its email, the Office of Administration said that in “these times of rising costs it is crucial that we select the most competitive bids in order to hold down costs. Pace is not raising tuition to fund this project.”