A pattern of broken promises should make local unions hesitant to trust NorthPoint Development.
We’ve loooked past news reports, labor records, and reached out to find out how NorthPoint does business with the unions. Is what they say true? Are they really a friend to the unions? NorthPoint’s sordid history with screwing over building trades shows that they are NO friend to labor unions.
The Will-Grundy Building Trades, led by Dirty Doc, have been pushing hard for this project, even going so far as to follow our Just Say No to NorthPoint signs and put out their own copycat signs that say yes to Compass Business Park. They have bused in apprentices from out of town to attend our plan commission hearings — and all for 1,600 jobs. Instead of getting the Teamsters to organize the warehouse workers; instead of rallying for infrastructure jobs that are desperately needed, Dirty Doc Gregory has made this project his pet project — willing to do seemingly anything to get it approved — while willfully ignoring the FACTS.
We have never been an anti-union group, though that’s the easiest label we get slapped with when we questioned NorthPoint Development’s motives. The reality is that we have many hardworking union families who oppose this project. We don’t want the trades to get screwed over. Ask yourself: Why is Dirty Doc so angry that we have pointed out what a scab company NorthPoint is? You would think he would not want the unions to be engaged with a company that has repeatedly been picketed for breaking union deals. Want to see the evidence for yourself? Keep Reading.
NorthPoint Uses Non-Local Labor in Michigan; Not Supported by Michigan’s GLS Building Trades
In Burton, Michigan, in July of 2018, NorthPoint brought in union contractors from Kansas City. From the ABC article, “Our tax money is headed to St. Louis and we have an issue with that,” said Michael Lynch, president of the Genesee Lapeer Shiawassee Building Trades Council. “We’ve been building GM for over 150 years, so it’s our jobs leaving the state and our tax money going with them.”
We also reached out to Michigan’s GLS Building Trades President Michael Lynch to see if things ever got resolved. In an email dated February 14, 2020, Michael Lynch responded to a question asking whether he and the GLS Building Trades supported NorthPoint Development; the response: “No. No f-ing way.” When asked him if things ever got fixed after mentioning NorthPoint busing in non-local workers, he said:
“That is what they did on the GM Fusion plant and the job went into the dirt.”
GLS Building Trades President, Michael Lynch, 2/20/2020
General Motors says the company is leasing the property from NorthPoint Development of Missouri, which is handling all building contracts.
Read the full story (7/20/2018)…
NorthPoint Evades Minority Participation
It doesn’t just end with using non-local labor. “In a Sept. 30 letter to Mark Pomerenke, a NorthPoint project manager, Director of Human Relations Phillip Yelder recommended that NorthPoint pay the $3.14 million in damages because it met only two of seven good-faith effort standards.
In his letter, Yelder noted that NorthPoint’s September 2015 electronic advertising for MBE and WBE contractors was “for scopes of work that were already anticipated to be let, as they were under a signed LOI (letter of intent).”
Among other things, Yelder also noted that NorthPoint hadn’t reached out for help with MBE/WBE hiring to any of the 15 contractor associations and assistance centers on the city’s MBE/WBE website.”
You can read the article in full online.“NorthPoint eludes big penalty for minority participation in P&L project.” Kansas City Business Journal. BizJournals.com. October 21, 2016.
Ironworkers Protest NorthPoint
“Ironworkers Local 10 has been staging an informational picket at the Inergy Automotive Systems plant under construction near the General Motors plant in Kansas City, Kan. “In our opinion, communities suffer when contractors fail to pay area standard wages and benefits,” the union’s handout said. A NorthPoint Development executive said the company had no comment.
See the undated Kansas City Star article online.
NorthPoint Outed for Non-Union Work in KC Labor Beacon
” A guy at Northpoint told a union rep that labor is a commodity, nothing more.”
NorthPoint Has Non-Union History, Avoids Paying Prevailing Wage
” But despite NorthPoint’s successes, area labor leaders are concerned about the firm’s non-union history and its quest for PIEA tax abatement, which might enable it to avoid paying prevailing wage. “They don’t want to pay a living wage to the individuals working on their job sites,” said Alise Martiny, business manager for the Greater Kansas City Building Trades Council. “They also couldn’t care less about the local work force or providing opportunities for MBEs (minority business enterprises) and WBEs (woman business enterprises) on projects. They are treating Kansas City as a commodity for revenue, so they shouldn’t get incentives from TIF or PIEA .”
July 14, 2014, Kansas City Labor Beacon
SHAME ON NORTHPOINT
Carpenters District Council Has Dispute with NorthPoint Development
THE EVIDENCE IS CLEAR: NORTHPOINT IS NO FRIEND OF THE UNIONS.
Stand up to Dirty Doc and Say NO to NorthPoint Development.
JUST SAY NO TO NORTHPOINT!!!
All deceitful lies to put $ in their pockets!