Courtesy UA Local 7
By Paul Post
When a key player is sidelined by injury, the whole team suffers.
Just ask the Yankees, who have been without superstars Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Max Fried for extended periods this year.
The same holds true in business, which explains why United Associated Local 7 recently opened a new Health and Wellness Center for its 1,400 active and retired members and their families.
“If we can get everybody in the habit of getting a yearly physical we can catch stuff early and at the end of the day, save money,” said Ed Nadeau, union president and business manager.
For example, prediabetes might be stopped from becoming full-blown diabetes, or someone at risk of a heart attack or stroke could turn things around with a healthier diet and exercise.
A survey of 180 union apprentices found that very few had a primary care doctor.
“That kind of lit the fire, that we need to have our own place,” Nadeau said. “It’s tough to get a primary care doctor in today’s world. They tell you quite often that they aren’t taking new patients.”
The union had $16 million in insurance claims last year alone.
“We have members who think the emergency room is our primary care doctor,” Nadeau said. “We’re paying way more in pricing because they’re going to the emergency room for non-emergency room visits. If we can get those people to go the Health Center, we should be able to save a few hundred thousand dollars right there.”
UA 7 represents skilled plumbers, steamfitters, pipefitters and sprinkler fitters. It has jurisdiction over work sites, training and apprenticeship programs in 10 counties: Albany, Columbia, Fulton, Greene, Montgomery, Rensselaer, Schenectady, Schoharie and parts of Hamilton and Saratoga counties.
Nadeau wants to build a coalition of other Capital Region trades unions, such as electricians, bricklayers and sheet metal workers, and open more medical centers modeled after UA Local 7’s.
It began welcoming patients in February and is located at Capital Region Health Park, 6 Wellness Way in Latham.
The center is staffed by a nurse practitioner and medical assistant, providing no-cost primary care. They are employed by Marathon Health, which operates 700 health centers across the U.S., with corporate offices in Indianapolis and Burlington, Vermont.
The 2,500-square-foot facility has four exam rooms and a blood-testing lab.
Nadeau said plans are in the works to have a full-time dentist as well.
The Health and Wellness Center is open to the union’s signatory contractors, too. “We’re encouraging them to use it,” Nadeau said. “Their office personnel from project managers to people doing payroll are just as important to the industry as we are. We’re trying to make everybody better.”
In addition to its health and cost-saving benefits, the medical center is expected to be a valuable tool for recruiting new union workers.
UA 7’s membership roll has increased about 33%, from 650 to 1,000 active workers, in the past 20 years. Nadeau said the union has been successful at recruiting young people with a variety of tactics.
“We’ve been to every high school career fair, we have a great relationship with all the BOCES programs in our jurisdiction and we partner with Hudson Valley Community College,” he said. “We also do radio ads for Yankee games (104.5-FM), television commercials and online.”
“We aren’t struggling to recruit young people,” he said. “What we need is journeymen plumbers and pipefitters that have experience. We introduce ourselves whenever we see somebody working in the industry who’s not in Local 7.”
Young people starting out in the union’s five-year apprenticeship program earn $50,000 to $60,000 per year, in addition to $20,000 in benefits. After completing the program, they can expect to make more than $100,000 per year, Nadeau said.
“It’s a great industry, a great career,” he said. “I also think building trades are going to be one of the last trades that offers a pension plan. Health insurance and all our benefits are second to none.”
Work opportunities are almost endless as UA 7 is involved with major jobs throughout the Capital Region, such as the $1.7 billion Wadsworth Center and DOT Testing Lab at the State Office Building Campus in Albany; a $675 million NanoFab Reflection semiconductor research and development facility at the Albany NanoTech Complex; and Regeneron projects in Saratoga Springs, Rensselaer and the Port of Albany.
“We’ve got a lot of small projects now, too, that used to be non-union and are now union,” Nadeau said. “Local 7 has over 200 HVAC service techs doing mostly commercial service work. The opportunities are amazing here. There’s never been a better time to be in Local 7 than right now.”