Business & Tech

Local Union Protests Use of Nonlocal, Nonunion Subcontractors for Great Lakes Mall Renovation

Local 310 asks why the Mentor mall doesn't use more local contractors in its multimillion-dollar renovation project

Members of the Laborers' International Union of North America Local 310 stood in front of a 10-foot-tall inflatable rat Friday afternoon outside of Great Lakes Mall.

They held signs asking why the Mentor mall did not use more local subcontractors in its .

"We're just trying to notify people that there's work going on at the mall and Simon Property Group (the mall's owner) has elected to use out-of-town contractors," Field Representative Mark Rosborough said. "Historically, the mall has used nearly 100 percent union, local contractors."

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Rosborough said the demolition work in the mall was done by the Beal Group, an Ann Arbor, MI-based contractor.

"There's a lot of contractors in Lake County who could use the work."

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Rosborough said that local contractors are better than the alternative because they care more about the end result.

"We have a vested interest in the mall. It is our families that shop there," he said.

To be clear, Rosborough said the gigantic inflatable rat was not meant to imply the people who worked at Simon Property Group were rodents. On the contrary, the rat is the union's mascot as they call themselves the Rat Patrol.

Renee Lanzara, the director of marketing and business development at Great Lakes Mall, said Simon Property Group did not hire the subcontractors for the renovation. Instead, it hired Law Company –  a build-and-design company based in Wichita, KS – as its general contractor and Law Company hired the subcontractors.

Dennis Kerschen, a senior vice president for Law, acknowledged that the company had hired some nonunion and nonlocal contractors for the renovation. However, he said some contractors on the project were unionized and from the region. He specifically said the electrician was from the Cleveland area and in a union.

He said Law would also hire more subcontractors before the renovations were finished.

"It's an ongoing process," Kerschen said.

He added that all the subcontractor positions had been bid on.

"We openly bid these to union and nonunion contractors, both in and outside of the region. We did not exclude anyone. Everybody had an opportunity," he said.

Kerschen said bids were selected based on several factors, including budget and each individual project's scope.


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