Representatives of a regional carpenters union protested Mount Nittany Health last week for the use of nonlocal labor on its $350 million patient tower construction project at the medical center in College Township.
Members of the Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters stood at the corner of Hospital Drive and Park Avenue with a sign reading “Shame on Mount Nittany Health” for hiring contractors they say “undermine local area labor standards.”
Wade Baumgartner, council senior representative, alleged a contractor from outside the area hired for interior work on the project has had more than 50 violations with the state Department of Labor, pays lower wages and offers few or no benefits to workers.
“We’ve done a lot of work over the years with Mount Nittany hospital, and obviously they’re undergoing one of the biggest projects they’ve ever done or probably ever will,” Baumgartner said. “We had local contractors that gave them prices and that utilized local labor, pay local area standard wages, the prevailing wage, and offer health care benefits… My understanding is we were really close, our contractor bidding on it, but they did not go with ours.”
The union most recently had dozens of workers on the construction of Mount Nittany’s new outpatient center at Toftrees West, and the project was completed on budget on an accelerated timeframe, Baumgartner said.
“That project was completely done by local people,” Baumgartner said. “That project was only supposed to be about 60% complete for the time frame they gave us. About a quarter or a third of the way through the project, they contacted us and asked would it be possible to complete the project at 100% in the same time frame, which meant, 20 extra people over there, carpenters, and working six to seven days a week trying to get it completed for them, which we did.”
Mount Nittany then going with nonlocal hires for the 10-story patient tower project is “very disheartening,” Baumgartner said. The project, which is expected to be completed in 2026, would have employed 60 to 70 local members of the carpenters union for more than a year on the $20 million interior work package, he added.
Mount Nittany Health spokesperson Tania Luciow wrote in an email that the health system selects contractors based on the specific project.
“In selecting partners, we assess each organization’s qualifications and commitment to excellence, tailored to the unique needs of each individual project,” Luciow wrote. “The new patient tower represents both an investment in the community’s health and a commitment to meet the evolving healthcare needs of the region.”
Union members were not trying to shut down work with the protest, but hoped to call attention to the hiring on the project and encourage Mount Nittany to hire more local labor in the future.
“Obviously, if there’s anything that they can do to award more work to some local people, that’s what we’re looking at,” Baumgartner said. “We want to say, ‘Hey, we’re here. We represent local people with good paying wages and health insurance. We should support these people.’”
