Photo courtesy of wnylabortoday.com Dave Wilkinson will be retiring this month as business manager of the International Brotherhood of Workers in Jamestown.

There was a bit of a lighthearted moment before a recent gathering of union trade officials last month in Jamestown. David Wilkinson, business manager for the International Brotherhood of Workers, had just entered one of the main conference rooms at the facility on James Street.

As president of the Jamestown Area AFL-CIO council, the soon-to-be retired Wilkinson was getting ready to open the meeting when the jovial banter began. “Is this your last meeting?” one of the officials asked. “Just one more after this,” Wilkinson replied.

But who’s counting?

Wilkinson’s work and passion have been recognized by many throughout his decades of service. One of his highest community honors came in 2014 when he was named Person of the Year Award by the Chautauqua County Chamber of Commerce.

At that time, Wilkinson was instrumental in organizing regional labor unions and local groups to rally to save the NRG plant in Dunkirk.

Through no fault of his — or the north county community — the NRG repowering project never came to fruition. Part of the problem was the state’s tremendous push during 2015 and 2016 to begin closing large fossil-fuel power producers. Another was a lawsuit filed by a nuclear power company in Central New York that let the NRG plans languish past a point of no return.

Pain of the plant’s closure, which was possibly the cleanest coal-burning plant in the nation at the time, still impacts the county’s queen city. On payment in lieu of tax revenue alone, the school and municipality would rake in nearly $8 million combined. Now that the plant has officially been mothballed — and out of service for more than six years — there’s a plethora of questions regarding the viability of the property and what the future will look like while combined tax revenues have plummeted to less than $320,000.

As for the present, Wilkinson and his partners at the table who represent the Western New York building and construction trades are proud of what they are accomplishing at this time. Some crews are working on the solar projects taking place in large numbers around the county while others are at the Ball Hill Wind project in the towns of Hanover and Villenova.

These builds are a sign of progress for a county that recently struggled to be recognized as a functioning economy when so many industrial giants — Petri in Silver Creek, Carriage House in Dunkirk and Fredonia and Truck-Lite in Falconer — closed or moved operations elsewhere in the last decade. But in the recent years, as was noted by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli in a recent audit, large-scale projects are happening right here at home. Proof alone is the more than $1 billion in projects taking place through the Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency in 2020.

This brings a whole other urgency: the recruitment of workers who will stay here while helping build a future. Those who sign up for these trades, whether it be electrical, plumbing, ironworkers or sheet metal specialists, begin with apprenticeship that train workers to become highly skilled, highly paid workers without incurring any debt. These apprenticeships place participants on the path to receive high wages, health-care coverage and retirement benefits from day one.

“We like to think that we’re developing community home-spun people who are going to stay here and perform the work that our area needs,” Wilkinson said, noting the obstacles of getting youth to take this career path instead of heading to college. “It’s difficult to get young people to come that way when so many others telling them to go get an education. Believe me, we educate you.”

At the IBEW location across from the Jamestown College Community campus, there’s a lot to learn for those aiming to be future electricians. For those entering it has to begin with a dedication that includes being on the job and then taking classes in the evenings over a span of four to five years.

Those long days, all in attendance agreed, will bring rewards down the road in terms of job security with a union that brings high wages and tremendous benefits. Starting out, the pay is $15 an hour and the salary grows with experience. “Most of our guys on average wages and benefits are $60 per hour,” Wilkinson said.

Getting youth into the program is no easy feat. Wilkinson said before COVID-19, he met with county superintendents to help recruitment efforts. Those who are interested toward the end of high school, however, may need a bit more education in terms of advanced math — especially trigonometry.

“Remember, when we bring them into our apprentice program, we’re creating people who are going to stay in this community,” Wilkinson said. “They’re the taxpayers, they’re buying the cars. … Once they sign into our program, they live here.”

As a county that has seen five decades of declining population, that is a benefit that cannot be overlooked.

One of the more recent projects many trades in this group took part in was the building of Americold in Dunkirk — a new state-of-the-art freezer that opened in June. That’s a proud moment for the workers and those they represent.

“The trades and the union … lift people out of poverty,” said Wilkinson, who has been the recipient of several union awards during his career, including the prestigious George Ritzer Memorial Labor Award. “We drive that anti-drug workforce. … We do three to four charity things a year.”

Throughout his tenure, Wilkinson estimates he’s seen 120 come on board while others have retired as electricians. He, and other trades organization leaders, are upbeat for the region’s future. They just want everyone — from the elected officials to the business community — to understand their commitment and tireless dedication to building a stronger future.

“We supply and provide benefits in wages and training through our system without assistance from the government, which is pretty stellar,” Wilkinson said. “It’s been that way for more than 100 years.”

John D’Agostino is the editor of the OBSERVER, The Post-Journal and Times Observer in Warren, Pa. Send comments to jdagostino@observertoday.com or call 716-366-3000, ext. 253