City Council Encourages Meeting Between Union and Local Developer

The Cambridge City Council adopted an order encouraging a local labor union to meet with the president of Cambridge-based developer Urban Spaces LLC to address the company’s preference toward hiring out of state Monday evening.

The Ironworkers Local 7, a Boston branch of a union that represents ironworkers across North America, has long been trying to meet with Urban Spaces LLC, over concerns that the company’s practice of hiring out-of-state workers has deprived local residents of work opportunities.

“When they hire the out-of-state contractors, these out-of-state contractors do not come here. They don’t come here. They don’t pay taxes here. They don’t live here, and when they leave here, with the contractors and subcontractors, they don’t pay money in the city of Cambridge like my members and our residents do,” Paul E. Lynch, the union’s business manager, said during the meeting. “We would just like a fair chance for our members and our residents to go to work in the city of Cambridge.”

No representative from Urban Spaces LLC was present at the meeting.

Eight councillors voted in favor of the policy order urging the two sides to meet, with one councillor absent from Monday’s meeting.

This is not the first time that the Council has expressed concerns over the actions of Urban Spaces LLC. Before voting on the order, Councillor Marjorie C. Decker said many residents have complained about the company in the past and described their attempts to reach out to Urban Spaces LLC as “talking to a brick wall.”

The Council also voted in favor of signing onto a statewide letter asking legislators not to allow fracking to come to Massachusetts and on various budgetary measures.

—Staff writer Anja C. Nilsson can be reached at anja.nilsson@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @anja_nilsson.