Dems fight Cianbro bid to use foreign workers

PORTLAND – Democratic leaders are asking Maine’s labor commissioner to hold a hearing on an application by the state’s largest construction firm to hire foreign workers for an oil rig project in Portland.

Qualified workers from Maine are available to work on the oil rigs being built by Cianbro Corp. and will be hurt by the entry of a large number of foreign workers, Maine Senate Pro Tem Michael Michaud and House Speaker Michael Saxl said in a letter to Labor Commissioner Valerie Landry.

“We are confident that once you have examined this issue, you will conclude that Cianbro Corporation’s application to bring in foreign workers should be denied. To do otherwise would be a serious disservice to the hardworking people of Maine,” Michaud and Saxl wrote.

Cianbro submitted an application last month to the state Labor Department to hire up to 60 foreign structural welders and 60 foreign pipe welders to work on two oil rigs being built for the Brazilian oil company Petrodrill.

Adam Fisher, a Labor Department spokesman, said a hearing on the issue was unlikely but said officials were open to hearing from concerned individuals.

Peter Vigue, Cianbro’s president and CEO, said the company wants to hire as many workers from Maine as possible and would only turn to foreign workers as a last resort.

“The last thing we want to do is do that. We want to use as many local, state of Maine workers as possible. We’re very sensitive to that,” Vigue said. “That’s in our best interest.”

Of the 600 employees now working on rigs, 91 percent are from Maine, he said. Another 250 people, some of whom are from other states, work as subcontractors on the job.

The company is required to advertise the jobs in Maine at the prevailing wage, which the state labor department determined was $15.20 an hour, Fisher said. Applications go through his department so officials can decide whether the company should be allowed to hire foreigners.

“It’s there to protect American workers, so we know exactly who applied to the job,” Fisher said.

After Oct. 28, U.S. Labor Department and the Immigration and Naturalization Service will decide whether to issue the visas.

Representatives of a statewide trades council said Maine has the work force to fill those jobs – but not at the $15.20.

“It would be a slap in the face to ask my guys to go work for this,” said Brian Treadwell, business manager for Iron Workers Local 496. “This is a high-profile job in the biggest city in Maine, and they have the audacity to go get foreign workers. It is a clear case that they have no intention of using organized labor.”

Members of Local 496 who do similar work at Maine Yankee, the nuclear plant in Wiscasset that is being decommissioned, earn about $20 per hour for the same job, plus about $10 toward benefits, Treadwell said.

Vigue said the average pay at Cianbro for those positions is $18.58 and that workers also receive benefits including health care, vacation, retirement and profit-sharing. The $15.20 listed in job ads would represent a “very entry-level position on a trainee-type person,” he said, and the wages could have a spread of $6 per hour.

Cianbro’s chairman is Ival “Bud” Cianchette, father of Republican gubernatorial candidate Peter Cianchette. The candidate, a former state lawmaker from South Portland, has no financial interest in the company, according to Jen Webber, a campaign spokeswoman.

Michaud is competing in a tight race with Republican Kevin Raye, a former aide to Sen. Olympia Snowe, for the open seat in the 2nd Congressional District. He is a mill worker from East Millinocket who enjoys strong support from organized labor.