Opinion: Why The Carpenters Union Endorsed Steve Winter

Ernest Pagan is the president of Carpenters Union Local 326.

New Haven’s landscape is transforming. At this point, it’s undeniable.

In May, the Hartford Courant reported on the $2.5 billion in public and private investments in biotech and housing that is pouring into the Elm City. New Haven is projected to grow by 10,000 people over the next decade. A few years ago, Yale boasted that the development at 101 College St. put New Haven on the path to becoming more like Kendall Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts where companies like Google, Meta, Microsoft, Pfizer, and Bayer have office and research facilities, and where the median rent is about twice that of New Haven. 

In a city like New Haven, which is home to both a world-class university and a chronic municipal budget deficit, the cranes and scaffolding across our city must seem like obvious signs that our future is looking pretty bright. 

But as a life-long New Havener, an experienced carpenter for 20 years, and the president of the Carpenters Union Local 326, I look around our changing city and can’t help but wonder: Will all this change provide opportunities and positive change for all of us, or will it mostly benefit a handful of wealthy developers, executives, and biotech private equity firms?

Good union jobs are fundamental to ensuring that growth and development aren’t just polite ways of saying gentrification and displacement. All New Haven residents deserve to benefit from the investments coming to the Elm City and to have a fair chance to thrive in our changing economy. 

My union just endorsed Steve Winter for state representative in the 94th District. Steve is a great example of someone who is working hard to make sure new development is moving everyone forward. Just last month, Steve secured a federal grant for New Haven to bring geothermal energy to Union Station and 1,000 new units of affordable housing. This project will bring clean, low-cost energy to New Haven residents and good union construction jobs to the local economy.

I’ve seen Steve’s dedication to serving his constituents from his years as the Alder for Ward 21 and know that as state rep, he will continue to be a strong partner in expanding opportunities for working people in his district.

Studies show that union construction sites are safer for workers than nonunion ones, and unionized crews deliver higher quality work with fewer resource-wasting and inconvenient delays. Even Business Insider recommends hiring union ​“if you want a construction project finished on time.” Unionized jobs in the trades offer better wages and benefits, making it easier to hire for and adequately staff worksites. Trade unions, like the Carpenters Union, invest significant resources in training and require rigorous apprenticeships so their members can work safely and deliver excellent results.

Hiring union isn’t just safer for workers. It’s beneficial to the investors and taxpayers who foot the bill for big development projects. For example, earlier this year, several nonunion contractors used by prominent developer Spinnaker Real Estate on its taxpayer-financed 55 Elm St. project in Hartford were found by the Connecticut Department of Labor to have either misclassified their employees as independent contractors, materially understated or concealed their payroll or didn’t have proper worker’s compensation insurance. Once the state Department of Labor uncovered these violations, it issued a Stop Work order on the Hartford project in February. The order remained in place for a week and was lifted only after significant fines were assessed on the contractors.

Union standards uplift individuals, families, and whole communities too. The average nonunion construction worker makes $25 per hour, while a unionized construction worker makes on average more than $37 per hour. Unions help reduce economic inequality, close gendered and racial wage gaps, and can even help raise pay for non-union workers. Newly released data from the Federal Reserve shows that union households have 1.7 times the median wealth of non-union households across all levels of education. Union membership increases median wealth for Black and Hispanic households by up to 228 percent, and unionized workers of all races and ethnicities are more likely to own homes and have retirement plans than non-union ones.

The union difference is personal for me. Without the Carpenters’ Union apprenticeship program, I could not have built a foundation of economic security and success for myself and my family. As president of my local union, I’ve pushed to continue and expand apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship opportunities in New Haven and across the state. I’ve stood with workers in other industries who are organizing to win unions and better contracts, as the workers at the Omni New Haven, who recently took a strike authorization vote, are doing right now.

I’m particularly proud that our union has made it possible for dozens more Black and Brown residents of New Haven’s most underserved neighborhoods to get stable jobs with great pay and benefits. These jobs help people save money, support their families, and contribute to their communities. 

Twenty years ago, I could not have imagined I would ever be a homeowner. Now, I can barely keep up with invitations to backyard cookouts and social gatherings at my members’ homes. I love to see the joy that comes to their families when they see years of apprenticeship pay off in a stable career and homeownership.