Dive Brief:
- Of the 450 construction employees currently working on the $900 million SolarCity factory project in Buffalo, NY, 18.4% are minorities and 5.6% are women — exceeding the negotiated pre-construction goals of 15% minorities and 5% women, Buffalo Business First reported.
- The number of construction workers employed at the SolarCity project is expected to triple in the coming months to reach between 1,200 and 1,500. First News reported that the issue of minority and women hires has been a source of criticism by opponents of the project and even its financers. "Hiring quotas will remain in the limelight" as hiring explodes, the news site said.
- SolarCity is the largest residential installer of solar energy in the U.S., and its factory is part of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Buffalo Billion economic development initiative that has helped bring more than 26,000 construction jobs to the region.
Dive Insight:
The SolarCity project, as well as all the other Buffalo Billion-funded construction projects, include project labor agreements that mandate the use of union labor, and according to the Buffalo Building Trades Council, local labor unions are committed "to raising the level of involving local workers, women and minorities on local projects."
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said he hopes that once the solar plant is open, SolarCity will keep the same hiring goals in mind when employing the approximately 3,000 people who will work at the facility, according to First News.
"We hope the numbers grow from where they are," Brown said. "Promises have been made, and thus far promises have been exceeded."
