SAUGERTIES – It’s a story with which union construction trades are quite familiar: contractors building public projects use out-of-state labor.

That is playing out again at the site of the Army Reserve Training Center that is in the early stages of construction on Kings Highway in Saugerties.

Laborers Local 17 Business Manager Todd Diorio said this time they have a dispute with the low bidder as selected by the Army Corps of Engineers.

“We go through this all the time; we’ve had the same problem at West Pointy for years,” he said. “There was another project at Stewart Airport that was done by a contractor called DTC out of Connecticut. There are a lot of issues on that project. It is behind schedule and has issues with concrete that is not up to spec.”

The Saugerties project will cost an estimated $11 million.             

Local 17 members picketed the construction site Tuesday. Diorio said contractor J&J Contractors, Inc. of Lowell, MA has brought in a sub-contractor, Lighthouse Masonry, Inc. of Connecticut, which is using out-of-state labor.

Diorio is working with Congressman Maurice Hinchey and others to have all federal government projects employ project labor agreements since President Obama reversed former President Bush’s prohibition of PLAs.