Laborers Local 296 signs two home energy contractors
Abacus and Faison
are the first to sign
long-term union
contracts
Portland-area homeowners now
have a union option when they’re ready
to save money and the planet with a
“home-energy retrofit.” On June 1, two
general contractors, Abacus Energy So-
lutions and Faison Energy Solutions,
signed a two-year contract with Labor-
ers Local 296, agreeing to pay the new
union scale for weatherization: $16.48
an hour, with 3 percent annual raises,
health insurance, and four paid holidays
and a week of paid time off per year for
full-time employees.
The retrofits usually begin with an
“energy audit” to determine where a
home is wasting energy. In older houses
especially, money often goes up the
chimney and out the window. Insulat-
ing is relatively inexpensive and brings
the biggest bang for the buck, not to
mention increased comfort. Those who
want to go the extra mile look at more
efficient furnaces, tankless water
heaters, energy-efficient windows, even
rooftop solar panels. Abacus and Faison
manage all phases of the retrofit, and
TAKING THE HIGH ROAD: From left, Faison Energy Solutions manager
Dave Hammond, Laborers organizer Ben Nelson, Abacus co-owner Jim
Plantico, and Laborers Local 296 Business Manager Ken Morgan
can help get financing as well, with a
state program known as Clean Energy
Works Oregon.
Locally and nationally, the Laborers
Union has been pushing home energy
retrofits as a growth industry. But break-
ing into the largely nonunion residential
remodel sector has been slow going. In
early 2010, the Oregon Laborers Train-
ing Center trained workers in weather-
ization, only to see most of them fail to
find employment. Later that year, the
union’s patient involvement yielded
what seemed like a promising result:
Six contractors signed the equivalent of
a project labor agreement to retrofit
homes in Portland’s Cully neighbor-
hood. But when the project ended, so
did the union affiliation.
Now Abacus and Faison — two of
those six contractors — have decided to
throw their lot in with the union. Part of
the appeal is a commitment by the La-
borers — joined by community allies
like the Metropolitan Alliance for Com-
mon Good and Ecumenical Ministries
of Oregon — to aid in generating busi-
ness. The partners formed a group, the
High Road Contractors and Commu-
nity Alliance, and meet every other
week to strategize on marketing.
Faison and Abacus have 12 employ-
ees total. For now, the work is too er-
ratic to enable the contractors to enroll
in the union-sponsored health trust,
which requires 130 hours a month of
work. But the contract commits them to
pay for health insurance for their em-
ployees, and half the cost of dependent
health care. That sets them apart from
nonunion competitors, they say.
The home energy retrofit market it-
self has enormous potential, but growth
has been fitful as incentives come and
go and federal grants are awarded and
spent.
A city-wide pilot project, now rolled
out statewide as Clean Energy Works
Oregon, takes away the biggest obsta-
cle, though — financing. Qualifying
homeowners get financing for the retro-
fits, and can repay the loans on their en-
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Homeowners can plug into the pro-
gram and get a union-signatory energy
audit at weatherizeforgood.org or by
calling 503-893-9240.
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