Laborers Protest at Tompkins County IDA Meeting

About 85 protesters assembled outside of the Tompkins County Industrial Development Agency meeting this Summer, urging officials to require that developers hire local laborers. Local 785 Business Manager Dave Marsh had this to say,

“These developers are coming into what I would consider a hot market. The IDA has leverage that they could use here to ensure that local construction workers go to work on these projects.”

The IDA is in charge of handing out tax abatements to developers, which are given to companies to encourage them to build in Ithaca. At the end of the meeting the chair of the IDA, told the protesters that the IDA would likely have a local labor policy recommendation drafted by October.