KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Edgemoor team tasked with building a new terminal at KCI announced they’ve reached a tentative labor harmony agreement with union leaders.
Although the deal has not yet been signed, Edgemoor Managing Director Geoffrey Stricker said it will reserve 5 percent of work across all trades at the site for non-union minority and women-owned firms. The unions originally asked for a 100 percent union workforce.
"It's been a long process, but we've gotten to a point where everybody's happy," Stricker said.
Negotiations lasted more than seven months as both sides grappled with how to protect unions while also meeting goals for participation from minority and women-owned enterprises.
A spokesman for the unions declined to comment Thursday, saying he'd like to wait until the ink is dry on the deal before talking about it. Stricker said the agreement was reached "in principle," but the exact wording is still being determined.
The tentative deal was welcome news to members of the airport committee, who learned about it during a monthly update from the KCI-Edgemoor team.
"That's one of the major sticking points as you know, then once we get past that, most of the work is fairly technical and dealing with our airline partners," Mayor Sly James said.
During Thursday's meeting, the Edgemoor group also updated committee members on efforts to make the new terminal the most accessible one in the world. Plans include an audiovisual paging system for passengers who are blind or deaf, plus an accessible play area built with the help of Variety KC.
Another big milestone is expected as early as next week when the city's legal team could hear back from the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA must approve the community benefits agreement for the project.
New design renderings for the terminal will be released at the August 16 committee meeting.
Click here to see the full presentation from Thursday's meeting.
