Hawaii unions
school up for projects

The Hawaii Carpenters Union Local 745 celebrated the grand opening of its new Kalaeloa training center yesterday with a blessing.

The 9,600-square-foot building is a converted Navy warehouse the union spent $500,000 modernizing, according to Ron Taketa, union financial secretary and business representative.

The building houses classrooms and workspace for training and apprenticeship courses that will supplement existing courses at Honolulu Community College.

The facility will "expedite training in areas where developers and contractors may need a certain skill," without conflicting with classes and facilities at HCC.

"We'll have the flexibility to produce and train tradesmen to meet the needs of the developers and contractors," Taketa said. Experienced workers will also be able to receive training and refresher courses "to better qualify them for new openings in the marketplace."

The training center is in building 283 at 91-077 Enterprise Ave. on land leased from the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, for which the union will pay $7,000 a month.

The union is looking forward to the "three generations of work" the upcoming military projects will provide, according to U.S Rep. Neil Abercrombie. "Everyone gets the benefits of keeping our kids and families together because we have the training center and job security to keep them at home," he said in a statement.

The Operating Engineers Local 3 last year marked started developing its own training facility on 109 acres of land it owns in Kahuku.

A maintenance facility has been completed and a building housing administrative offices and classrooms is about halfway done, said District Representative Allan Parker.

"With that, we will have invested upwards of $9 million, considering infrastructure improvements, the land purchase and construction of the two buildings," Parker said.

The facility has been in the works for some 20 years, Parker said.

Local 3's members, who run heavy equipment, are usually outnumbered at job sites by members of other trade unions.

If we have between five to 10 operators, that's a major production for us," Parker said.

The union does have a large presence at Ocean Pointe, where "shucks, we have 20 to 30 operators," and in Kona where more than 100 operators are working on luxury home developments.

Local 3 welcomes the projected billions of dollars in upcoming construction projects and Parker is certain it can meet builders' needs.

"Membership has increased, we've had some degree of influx from the mainland and there are always inquiries," Parker said. Its apprenticeship program is opened every two years and draws as many as 300 applicants for what historically may be only 60 positions. The number of positions may rise, a possibility "that'll become totally reflective of how the industry moves," Parker said.

Members of various trades "can essentially be working their entire careers" on the military housing contracts, said Ryan Mielke, regional communications director for Actus Lend Lease, which has the contracts to develop homes for the Army and Air Force.

"That training is definitely valuable, definitely needed," Mielke said. "It's a really good partnership that the unions have put together.

As the home now being built start to age, over 15 or 30 years, they will be renovated, torn down and constructed all over again. "They are going to be able to depend on these projects for many years to come," Mielke said