Toledo area Home Depots picketed

Firm accused of not using local crews for $39M facility

A customer leaves the Home Depot design center store in Charlotte, N.C., Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2007.
( ASSOCIATED PRESS )

By TOM TROY
BLADE POLITICS WRITER

Josh Abernathy says he's been laid off from electrical work since April, and that's why he joined an informational picket line Friday that discouraged Black Friday shoppers from patronizing Home Depot on Airport Highway.

According to Mr. Abernathy and others picketers at five area Home Depot stores, the company is using nonlocal contractors to build its $39 million distribution center in Hancock County. Construction trades members said they want the work to go to local, if not union, contractors.

"These guys have got a multi-million-dollar project I'd be more than willing to work on, and they're using out-of-state workers, " Mr. Abernathy, 30, of Toledo said. "Keep the money in northwest Ohio."

The Northwest Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council of skilled trades unions had members standing with "Boycott Home Depot" signs at five area stores starting at about 6 a.m.

In August, Allen Township and Hancock County approved a 10-year, 60 percent tax abatement so the 650,000-square-foot distribution center could be built just west of I-75 and north of State Rt. 613, north of Findlay. It will employ at least 300 people, although employment could go up to 400.

In June, the Ohio Department of Development awarded Home Depot U.S.A. Inc. a 45 percent job creation tax credit for a five-year term for the new distribution center. The tax credit was valued at $285,269 over the five years.
Jennifer King, a spokesman for the Atlanta home improvement and hardware chain, denied a union claim that 90 percent of workers are from out of the area.

"While we do have an out-of-town contractor, we do hire a lot of qualified local service providers for construction. I can't break down the numbers, but if they're saying 90 percent of the labor is from out of town, that is not correct. We use a lot of local labor."

Ms. King added that the building will be owned by another party and leased to Home Depot, so Home Depot is not controlling the construction contracts.

Ohio and Hancock County officials were competing with Michigan and Indiana for the center, which will serve 120 stores in the Midwest. The company projected that jobs will pay an average of $10.88 per hour, plus benefits.

Mike Haupricht, executive secretary of the trades council, which claims 10,000 workers in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan, said contractors are coming from Georgia, Kentucky, and Michigan.

Joe Cousino, president of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 8, said it's "sad" because many skilled trades members are Home Depot shoppers. And he said the union pension funds hold stock in Home Depot.

He said the public appeal for a boycott was a last resort. "We've been up the ladder. We've tried corporate," Mr. Cousino said.

Contact Tom Troy at:
tomtroy@theblade.com
or 419-724-6058.