About 50 members of five Western New York building trades unions converged upon the Genesee County Economic Development Center office on MedTech Drive Wednesday morning to protest a decision to waive the local hire requirement for the 500-megawatt Cider Solar project in Elba and Oakfield.
The solar facility, being developed by Chicago-based Hecate Energy, will cover about 2,200 acres on 60 parcels of private land north of the villages of Elba and Oakfield near Lockport Road and Route 98.
“They’ve pushed us in a corner, so we’ve got to react,” said Grant Malone, district manager of Upstate New York Operating Engineers Local 158 in Rochester and president of Rochester Building Trades, which represents 17 trade councils.