Red Wings arena contractors fined $500K for not hiring enough workers from Detroit
Nothing like monetizing off a little loyalty to your city – We're looking at you, Detroit!
Construction of the city's new Little Caesars Arena (which will be home to the NHL Detroit Red Wings) has just racked its contractors up an estimated $500K in fines.
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Why, you may ask? Because of the total number of hired workers for the arena, less than 51 percent are actually from Detroit.
Yes, that's legal.
Here's how it breaks down.
Olympia Development of Michigan, the Little Caesars Arena development company, is required to employ at least 51 percent of workers from Detroit due to a deal they made that allowed $250M of "taxpayer-backed bonds" to be used during construction of the arena.
Recent reports show that roughly only 40 percent of arena workers are employed from Detroit.
But fear not – the fines aren't going straight to the state's bank to be used for miscellaneous funds.
They're actually going towards something pretty great, as Portia Roberson, director of the Office of Human Rights of Detroit, said in a statement:
"Where individual contractors and subcontractors fail to meet the 51 percent Detroit resident requirement, a noncompliance fee is paid with 100 percent of that applied to training Detroiters for skilled-trades jobs."
The fines that are collected are to be allocated towards an apprenticeship training program (in the building and construction industry) of the company's choice.
The money can also be put towards tools and equipment.
Perhaps it's a win-win after all!
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