Rossford Campus Wins Veteran’s Award

The Rossford IKORCC campus works hard to honor military veterans. This year that hard work helped them win a national award from the Veterans Health Administration for their Community Partnership Challenge. The Rossford campus partnered with the Toledo V.A. Clinic for the Helmets to Hardhats program. Helmets to Hardhats helps military veterans get back to work quickly after service.

“These veterans tend to be natural leaders and end up as foremen and superintendents. As they go through their careers, they bring more veterans in. We’d like to have a nice flow of veterans coming into our program every year,” said Mike Gibson, a senior representative at the Rossford campus.

Thanks to the recruitment of veterans and other hard workers, membership in Locals 351, 372, 744, and 1090 has grown more than 120 members since last year. Even with the growth, the Rossford-area still needs experienced help. Business representatives are actively recruiting at job fairs, career days, and visiting trade schools to create connections.

The work outlook is good with several large projects in the works, including the Lucas Convention Center, a new Hyatt Hotel, Park Inn Hotel renovation, I-75 DiSalle Bridge replacement, Amazon Fulfillment project, Interstate Chemical, and Cleveland Cliffs.

To protect market share, business representatives are actively fighting tax fraud in the Rossford-area. Banners at several sites have led to meetings with city councils, tax departments, permit and zoning departments, and mayors. Several politicians joined business representatives for job site visits and were able to see the 1099 and cash abuse first-hand. Thanks to these efforts, Toledo is considering individual carpenter licensing with testing to help limit 1099 abuse.