Actus signs 50-year labor deal
By Kelly Yamanouchi
Advertiser Staff Writer
Actus Lend Lease LLC signed a 50-year labor agreement to modernize and maintain 7,800 U.S. Army housing units on O'ahu at a ceremony yesterday where representatives of Hawai'i's congressional delegation lauded the move.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
Government, union and company officials said the " 'Ohana Stabilization Agreement" with multiple labor unions for a military housing project that will last half a century is unprecedented.
Richard Tacgere of the Glaziers Architectural Metal & Glass Workers Local 1889 signs the 50-year agreement. "It means a lot," said Tacgere, who hopes at least 50 of his 135 members will find work under the agreement. "We got a lot of work for the locals."
"With this model the nation will benefit," said Sen. Dan Inouye. "It's a long agreement. It shows the trust and confidence we have in each other."
Rep. Neil Abercrombie said that in the past, "We were criticized for not being able to provide the quality-of-life housing that was necessary for our armed services, particularly the volunteer service where more and more people were being married, and where more and more couples had children." Now, he said, the project labor agreement sets a precedent he hopes will be emulated across the country.
Inouye said colleagues in Congress from Arkansas, Mississippi and California have looked at this labor agreement as a possible model for projects in their jurisdictions.
The Army selected California-based Actus Lend Lease, which has built military homes in Hawai'i for more than 12 years, as the preferred developer for the housing privatization contract in August 2003. The company said the contract would be worth about $1.7 billion over the initial 10-year development period and $5.1 billion over the life of the agreement through 2054.
Abercrombie has been a critic of tax exemptions from the city and the state proposed in the privatization contract and said that issue is still being worked out.
Lynn Kinney, business manager and secretary treasurer of the International Union of Painters & Allied Trades Local 1791, said the contract means work for "three generations of our people."
Actus expects at the height of construction on the project to employ more than 500 Hawai'i workers affiliated with 30 to 50 local subcontractors.
Richard Tacgere, business representative for the Glaziers Architectural Metal & Glass Workers Local 1889, said he hopes at least 50 of the approximately 135 members of his union will work on the contract.
"It means a lot," Tacgere said. "We got a lot of work for the locals."
Peter Koziol, chief executive of Actus Lend Lease, said he's hearing the work is bringing some Hawai'i residents back "who have gone to Vegas or have gone to other places — men and women who want to return to Hawai'i to work."
Reach Kelly Yamanouchi at kyamanouchi@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2470.
