Last month, union contractors Beaver Construction and Goettle were each awarded a contract for piling work at the Nucor Steel site in Mason County, West Virginia.
The contract awards are the first major construction contracts won by union firms since the announcement of the Nucor deal late last year.
“We are pleased Nucor has chosen these top-quality union contractors, who hire local workers, for the piling work at their new facility,” said Chuck Parker, President of the West Virginia State Building and Construction Trades. “We have the best and most qualified professionals in the industry, and I believe Nucor will be more than satisfied with the results of their work.”
Earlier this year, a contract for concrete work at the Nucor site was awarded to ABC Concrete, a non- union firm from Utah. Sources say that contract included 360,000 yards of concrete installation at the facility and represented approximately 1.2 million hours of work.
Pre-construction site preparation work is still underway by Kanawha Stone, a West Virginia nonunion company. The construction of the facility itself was supposed to start in November 2022 but is now expected to be pushed back due to permit and equipment delays.
In November of 2021, the West Virginia legislature convened a special session to discuss passing legislation, creating an exclusive deal for Nucor to build the new facility in Mason County, WV.
By the end of the special session, the House of Delegates and the WV Senate passed a bill providing $315 million in direct taxpayer funding as well as property and corporate income tax incentives that were used to entice Nucor to locate its new facility in West Virginia.
The deal passed by the legislature resulted in the largest publicly funded agreement in the state’s history and made Nucor Steel the largest corporate recipient of taxpayer funds ever in West Virginia.
Sources say about 100 contractors will be on site during the construction period. Because of this, there has been much public discussion questioning where the workers will come from.
“We have never failed to provide craftworkers for projects in our jurisdiction,” said Parker. “Our strength is having a local workforce with the skills to take on any project and get the job done right.”
The next contract to be awarded is for mechanical and structural work. Nucor will be receiving bids from firms for the work in mid-September. Bids for piping and electrical work are expected sometime in late October.
