How Union Crews Give One Chicago Developer A Competitive Edge

For more than 30 years, JDL Development has been bringing luxury residential properties to life in Chicago. Company founder and CEO James Letchinger said a majority of these projects have relied on the help of union labor to get them over the finish line. 

Letchinger said utilizing union labor typically brings consistency and quality to a project — two attributes that shouldn’t be compromised.

“Unions mean different things to different people,” he said. “In Chicago, union means having people who are efficient and are working hard while making a decent wage.” 

He said unions can also help solve a persistent problem in his industry: the shortage of skilled workers.

In Chicago and across the country, the construction industry has been exploring ways to attract younger workers to combat its labor shortage. This includes providing workforce training and mentoring and integrating technology on the job site. Unions provide apprenticeships consisting of extensive skills- and safety-based training both in the classroom and on the job. Apprentices also receive mentoring from experienced professionals.

Letchinger said unions can provide a career path for younger people who might otherwise end up pursuing other paths.

“You used to get third-generation tradespeople, but young people today aren’t necessarily going into the trades,” he said. “They’re encouraged to go to college and go into the tech world or programming or something computer-based. These are great careers for many people, but they’re also not for everybody.”

Individuals who want to pursue a career as a union laborer in Illinois typically have to take an aptitude test and receive free skills training through the union for the trade they will pursue, he said. They can then enter an apprentice program and receive additional on-the-job training while getting paid. Union finishing trades in Chicago have rewards programs to incentivize continual skills and safety upgrades throughout a journeyperson's career, all at no additional cost to union members.

He said people who join a union get to see their hard work pay off.

“If you are reliable and perform well, you get rewarded through the union with continuous work,” he said. “During the apprenticeship, your earning rate continues to increase towards full journeyperson scale as school hours are accumulated. If you work hard and stick with it, you can make a nice living and have great benefits, pension and a variety of advantages.”  

A typical apprenticeship in the finishing trades is completed in two to three years, depending on the specific trade.

Many of JDL Development’s large projects, such as high-rise residential buildings, use union labor, Letchinger said. This can include painters, wallcovering installers, drywall finishers, foundation specialists, plumbers and electricians. Once the structure is complete, union finishing contractors do their part to apply the final touches.

He said union members can coordinate their tasks, assuring the work will be done well. Skilled and trained workers can also contribute to a project’s efficiency.

“Sometimes, we’ll have the same subcontractors on five buildings in a row — same electrician, same plumber, two or three concrete contractors,” he said. “They also have scale, so they can do numerous jobs at the same time, whereas very often the nonunion shops do one big job at a time and might not be able to do more.”

Enlisting union labor in Chicago can be expensive, but Letchinger said there is a payoff in the skills, speed and quality the workers can provide.

“Speed makes a big difference on a developer’s profitability,” he said. “We’re able to build much faster because of the union’s experience, knowledge and scale. Because their groups are larger, they can work on big projects and they have the ability to pick up additional skilled labor from the union. It’s worth the added cost.”

This article was produced in collaboration between Finishing Chicago and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

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