Restoring Buffalo
Published Monday, December 5, 2011 1:00 am
by Tom Campbell/Editor-Publisher
(BUFFALO) – If you take a moment and listen, you can still hear the echoes of all those “oohs” and “aahs” that came from those who visited Buffalo in October for the National Preservation Conference as they toured our City’s grand architecture and its many revitalized buildings – and that’s put a very big smile on the face of Sheet Metal Workers Local 71 Business Manager John Helak, who’s proud of the role that his Members are playing in “restoring Buffalo.”
From the Old Post Office that now serves as home to Erie Community College’s (ECC) Downtown Campus to the Darwin Martin House near the Buffalo Zoo, to Corpus Christi, St. Stan’s and Western Presbyterian Churches and St. Paul’s Cathedral to the Richardson Complex off Forest Avenue, and at some of the oldest and most well-known residences in Buffalo – including the Butler Mansion – and in nearby East Aurora where the historic Roycroft Campus rests, Local 71’s many highly-skilled Members can be found doing what they do best, and in the process, adding to the legacy of Buffalo’s past and preserving it all for future generations to enjoy.
“It was extremely positive having the preservationists here in town a couple of months ago,” Helak (pictured below/WNYLaborToday.com Photo) recently told WNYLaborToday.com during a walking tour of the Union’s Liberty Avenue Business Office and Training Center that’s located on Buffalo’s East Side. “Our Members are working to restore the City of Buffalo and this historic restoration specialty is where our Members’ work really shines. Most of the (roof) work is copper and it has to be done to specifications and reproduced right down to the last letter. If it’s a Level One, it’s original. If it’s Level Two, it has to look the same, but you can use different materials to get the job done. I know how hard it is – having personally done the work myself – and our Members are extremely proud of the work they do.”
Local 71 – a member Union of the Buffalo Building & Construction Trades Council – has 325 Members who work a variety of projects across the Western New York Region. Each Member goes through a five-year Apprenticeship Program to learn the skills needed to perform such work in order to become a seasoned craftsperson. The Union, which currently has as many as 65 Apprentices, invests $250,000 in training on a yearly basis, Helak tells WNYLaborToday.com.
For example, in Downtown Buffalo, you just couldn’t miss seeing all those scaffolds that have been erected several stories high around the Old Post Office Building to assist Local 71 Members in the copper restoration to ECC’s roofing (pictured below).
Century Slate & Copper Architectural Metals (which Helak tells WNYLaborToday.com is owned by two Local 71 Members) and Grove Roofing Services Inc. are the local Union Contractors involved in the on-going project, which employs as many as six Unionized Sheet Metal Workers, said Helak, who adds that “it’s a big contract and it’s been going on since the Summer.” (Photos Courtesy of Sheet Metal Workers Local 71)
Meanwhile, Local 71’s Members have been involved in a number of high-profile copper dome and roof restorations at several of Buffalo’s historic churches, including:
- Corpus Christi Church on Clark Street in Buffalo’s Historic Polonia Community where copper flashing repairs were made to its massive dome by Weaver Metal and Roofing Co., Inc., which employed 12 Local 71 Members on the job.
- St. Stanislaus Church on Townsend Street in Buffalo is where Joseph A. Sanders & Sons, Inc. – a Unionized Commercial Roofing Company – and Century Slate & Copper Architectural Metals combined to complete a copper restoration dome project (pictured below) a couple of years ago. A half-dozen Local 71 Members were involved in that project, Helak said. (Photos Courtesy of Sheet Metal Workers Local 71)
- Copper work was also performed by Local 71 Members at the Westminster Presbyterian Church on Delaware Avenue and at St. Paul’s Cathedral, a Downtown Buffalo landmark, as well as at the historic Darwin Martin House Complex near Delaware Park in North Buffalo.
- In addition, three Local 71 Retirees have committed to volunteering their time and efforts to recreate as many as six electrical lanterns for inside the historic Central Terminal Project on Buffalo’s East Side (pictured below). With no original specs available – this work is being done to specifications with the help of some very old photographs, so the re-creation can be built to as close to the originals as seen in those photos, Helak tells Your Regional, On-Line Labor Newspaper. (Photos Courtesy of Sheet Metal Workers Local 71)
Other restoration projects that have involved the Members of Sheet Metal Workers Local 71 include the stabilization of the Richardson Complex in Buffalo off Forest Avenue, and out in East Aurora at the sprawling Roycroft Campus, in addition to several older residences in the City – such as the Butler Mansion. All are and were in dire need of copper roofing restoration, Helak said.
Such intricate restoration work would be not be completed by these contractors nor would the Members of Sheet Metal Workers Local 71 be employed to work on them without a good working relationship between the Union and its many individual Union Contractors.
“We have great relationships with Union Roofing Contractors, who employ a number of our Members to put metal on after it’s roofed. We have open door communications and hold regular meeting with them,” Helak said. “Local 71 is always working hard to ensure that these local projects and the money that goes with them stay here in our community. We’re always working with and making sure that good and socially-responsible contractors – who are good for our community – get the work that offers good-paying jobs with medical benefits and a pension.”
Tony Byrne, owner of Weaver Metal & Roofing Co. Inc., agrees.
“It’s a good team (Labor and Management) that we have and a good working relationship. This is really ‘old-time craftsmanship.’ The workmanship involves doing the work so it looks exactly the way it did – in some cases – one-hundred to one-hundred-and-fifty years ago. Our guys make a good living and I don’t begrudge them because of the quality work they do,” Byrne – whose company was founded in 1989, employs as many as 65 Workers during peak season and has received a Historical Award for some of the architectural restoration work his company has performed locally, told WNYLaborToday.com.
Another Union Contractor – Joseph Sanders & Sons, Inc., which started its business back in 1919 – has been involved in a number of local projects too, such as rebuilding a skylight out of copper for City Honors High School in Buffalo to “mimic the original skylight,” said Owner Stephen Sanders, whose grandfather, Joe, founded the business.
Sanders says the superior training and safety training provided to Local 71 Members is “essential” in his business: “I can’t imagine being non-Union with the varying levels of experience (some Workers have). They may be good at one thing, but not something else. Our Employees being able to go through Apprenticeship (Training) gives (Union Contractors) an advantage. We’re in a tough, competitive (business) and (Local 71 Business Manager) John (Helak) does everything he can to supply us with good people.”
Unionized Sheet Metal Workers employed by Grove Roofing Services Inc. are working on the Downtown ECC Project – eight stories up from ground level on some very steep slopes as they install new and intricate copper flashing and gutters.
Grove Roofing President John Embow described the work performed by his Employees as “sophisticated,” including expert soldering while working “out in the elements.” He too has what he terms as “an excellent” working relationship with Local 71 that “continually finds up the type of people with the skills and craftsmanship that are great to work with.”
“Our Employees do the job well, ‘the first time,’ and the Union does a great job training them. You need experienced guys to do this job and it lends to the credibility of the jobs we do. With so many (architectural) treasures in our area, (Local 71) certainly provides us with those kinds of Workers that have the skills and are great to work with,” Embow told Your Regional, On-Line Labor Newspaper.
Mike Zink, who is a Local 71 Member himself, has a unique perspective on the Labor-Management relationship due to the fact that he is a co-owner of Century Slate & Copper Architectural Metals. Zink and Richard Kraft, another Local 71 Member, purchased the Buffalo company in May 2008 after working there for 20 years. Century employs five Workers and as much as 75% of its overall work involves exclusive copper church restoration. .
“Training absolutely plays a major role with copper and soldering. It’s very hard to find a guy off the street (who could do this kind of work). Safety training is also extremely important because these guys have a repertoire of working at great heights. Our relationship with Local 71 is great. We understand where both sides are coming from and we’ve got good, skilled Workers. It’s the quality of our work that we’re most proud of,” Zink said.
Meanwhile back at Grove Roofing, Local 71 Member and Company Employee Rich Foley is Grove’s Sheet Metal Supervisor. A Member of his Union since 1977, Foley also serves as an Apprenticeship Instructor/Trainer for Local 71. He learned his craft in copper from his father, who was also a Member of Local 71.
Foley says those who work the Trade must have a “passion for Architectural Sheet Metal Work” because it’s “a very specialized field and you have to be the kind of person who doesn’t mind heights.”
Adds Foley of the Labor-Management Relationship between Local 71 and Grove: “It’s a great relationship. Grove knows what it needs – experienced Workers that are trained by Local 71 – and it’s the Union that furnishes those Workers.”