Randy McGuire holds a sign in protest of Invenergy Wednesday morning in Ada.
ADA —Representatives from the Ohio Laborers’ District Council came out to Ada Wednesday morning to bring attention to what they are calling unfair business practices from a local solar investment.
Randy McGuire, a member of the council’s solar committee, said that he and other workers with the council have been protesting Invenergy and other solar energy companies hiring out-of-state workers for lower wages.
“Companies are using out-of-state workers paying them not a living wage at the same time they’re paying temporary services to bring these people in,” McGuire said. “What we want, is local workers, Ohio workers. That’s what they’re supposed to be using for the pilot program, which is a tax benefit that they’re getting anywhere from a $20 to $35 million tax break and they’re falsifying documents saying they’re using Ohio workers and they are not.”
Invenergy declined a request from The Lima News for comment.
A story in The Lima News from 2021 reported that the solar farm run by Invenergy and Dominion Energy in Alger created more than 200 construction jobs and brought in millions of dollars.
Documents from the Ohio Department of Development show that the state determined that the solar farms run by Invenergy in Hardin County are using the required 80 percent Ohio workers and that Hardin Solar Energy, LLC complied with all requirements under the Ohio Revised Code.
McGuire said that the council is not in support or opposition toward solar energy and that they have worked with government agencies that are looking into the matter too.
“We’re not for or against solar, but we do know this: it is here and we want to build it,” he said. “And if they build it, we want it to be Ohio workers.”
Several cars honked horns in support of the protest as the union members held their signs outside of the Ohio Northern University campus and McGuire, who traveled from southern Ohio, said that the only negative thing he had heard was about the concept of solar farms, which has been a hot topic throughout west central Ohio for the past few months.
He also said that the group will be demonstrating in Kenton at the county commissioners meeting Thursday and in Lima Friday and plan to continue the actions next week.
“The community has been great and we hate that they’re taking tax dollars away from the community when they take that tax incentive,” McGuire added. “At the same time, when these people come from other states come to stay here at a hotel, they take their money back to another state. Let’s keep that money in Ohio.”
Reach Jacob Espinosa at 567-242-0399.
