By Alexander Fernandez, Alexandria Journalism Project
Alyia Gaskins recently connected Adam Yalowitz of Unite Here Local 25 with Potomac Land Group II, LLC via an email exchange in which she tried to facilitate a relationship between the parties so that the upcoming Vulcan Site Redevelopment Project, which will include a new hotel, can potentially be unionized for Unite Here Local 25 workers.
“I am committed to ensuring that all of our developments also result in good opportunities for workers. While I recognize that the construction of the hotel site is a couple of years away given the site remediation work and site development work, I think it’s important to start building relationships now,” Gaskins wrote in an email to John Elcano, Paul Schwalb, Brad Kline, Adam Yalowitz and Ken Wire on April 18, just days after City Council approved the Vulcan site redevelopment project.
In a note to Yalowitz, Gaskins said she thought it was “important” for the union representative and developers to meet.
“Adam, John is developing the only Vulcan site. I think its (sic) important that you connect and learn about what is proposed on the site, including the hotel,” Gaskins wrote in the email.
The Times obtained the email chain in a Freedom of Information Act request.
The members in the email exchange included:
• Elcano, owner of Potomac Land Ventures and Potomac Land Group II, LLC whose company is developing the Vulcan Redevelopment Site Project;
• Yalowitz, who Gaskins has identified as her main contact at Unite Here, a labor union representing 300,000 people, mostly hospitality workers, across Canada and the United States;
• Kline, managing partner of Potomac Land Group II, LLC;
• Schwalb, executive secretary treasurer of Unite Here Local 25; and
• Wire, a land use attorney who has been the primary legal representative for the Hoffman Company on various construction projects within the city throughout the years.
“I connected [Unite Here with project developers] because it’s a hotel project and I thought everyone should be aware of it. I don’t think this is anything different than anyone else does in projects. Council members connect councilmembers, mayors, others, connect people to learn about projects happening in their communities regularly,” Gaskins said during an interview. “I facilitated a connection the same way that I often connect people with these projects.”
Gaskins said the roughly $40,000 that Unite Here has given her in cash and in-kind donations through the March 31 reporting period for her mayoral campaign had no impact on her decision to connect the union with the Vulcan project leadership.
“If you were a civic association and you asked me about a project, I’ll do the same connection for you,” Gaskins said.
Gaskins said she connected Unite Here with the Vulcan Site Redevelopment Project developers on her own accord and that the connection wasn’t requested by the union. Kline declined to comment on whether Gaskins or Yalowitz proposed the meeting.
Gaskins said she felt that while she facilitated the meeting, it was not her role to establish a relationship between the union and developers.
“It’s not for me to broker what comes of that relationship, or to set expectations for that relationship. I can’t make people meet, I can’t make people build relationships. That’s not my intent. I just think if we are all working in the same places, we should all know about the different things that are coming before us,” she said.
Gaskins adamantly stated that since the City of Alexandria does not have a proprietary interest and because the hotel does not have an approved operator or vendor, the city cannot require the future hotel to have labor agreements.
“The hotel does not have an approved operator or vendor, nor can the city require that a union be part of that project because we do not have a proprietary interest,” Gaskins said.
Benjy Cannon, a spokesperson for Unite Here, said whether or not a union is established at the Vulcan is completely up to the workers.
“Unite Here is never going to come in unless the workers say, ‘We want the union.’ Our job is, if the workers say that, again, in our experience, they often do [want union representation]. If they are given a fair process to do so and a chance, then we will represent them and bargain their contract,” Cannon said.
Kline, referring mainly to whether his company would hire unionized construction workers for the Vulcan project, said the company will consider all options.
“It is way too early. We don’t have a brand yet and we don’t have the construction drawings, so we are two years away before we even consider how we are going to build it, who is going to build it, and who is going to be a contractor,” Kline said.
Since Virginia is a “right-to-work” state, workers may choose not to pay union dues, despite the company being a unionized establishment. Nonunionized workers in a unionized workplace receive benefits negotiated by the union regardless of whether they choose to pay union dues, but workers who are hired into a unionized workplace are automatically enrolled in the union, according to Cannon.
“If you work for a place with a union contract, you are a union member,” Cannon said. “You can opt out of paying dues in Virginia and receive all the benefits, and kind of freeload off of it. Obviously, that is not something we encourage, but you are allowed to.”
Wire represented Vulcan Site Redevelopment Project applicants, the Lennar Corporation and Potomac Land Group II, LLC. He filled out a speaker forum for docket 11 of the 701 S. Van Dorn St. and 698 Burnside Place Initiation of and Public Hearing to discuss amending the Eisenhower West Small Area Plan to amend height requirements and include hotel and townhouses as permitted within the coordinated development district No. 26 with a CDD special use permit, according to the Vulcan Site Redevelopment Project’s Minutes (24-2042).
Many workers Unite Here represents are in the hotel industry. The Vulcan Site Redevelopment Project, an Eisenhower Partnership, will feature a hotel, townhouses, condos, a park and three new streets, according to the Action Docket and related development special use permits (#2023-00013, 2023-10007, 2023-00014, 2023-10014). Alexandria City Council approved the project unanimously 7-0 on April 13, according to the City of Alexandria action docket 24-2042.
The proposal discussed constructing a 256-room hotel with ground floor retail; 31 townhouses and 88 stacked townhouses – multi-unit residential units – with an intent to reduce the off-street parking requirement for the stacked townhouses. The construction will include three new streets and associated infrastructure, according to the Vulcan Site Redevelopment project’s action docket.
City residents have been abuzz about the endorsement placards that paid Unite Here workers have been distributing throughout the city in recent weeks. Most single-family home neighborhoods have received two of the placards, and residents in condo and apartment buildings have also reported receiving them.
A city resident told the Times in our May 9 story, “Mysterious election placards baffle city residents,” that one of the Unite Here workers told her Gaskins herself chose the slate that Unite Here endorsed. All of the candidates that Unite Here did not endorse said they did not have an individual meeting with the union, although James Lewis, a candidate for City Council, told the Times that Unite Here may have been part of a larger Zoom meeting with various other unions that he participated in.
Gaskins and Cannon strongly denied that Gaskins had any role in choosing the slate the union endorsed.
Cannon reiterated that the reason Unite Here endorsed Gaskins and has canvassed on her behalf is because of her support for workers, better schools and affordable housing in Alexandria.
“Endorsing Alyia and actively helping her campaign was one of the easiest decisions that we’ve ever made. She’s been a champion for workers in Alexandria, especially the immigrant workers who live in Southern Towers for the entirety of her political career,” Cannon said.
Gaskins also told the Times that she has the same policy as outgoing Mayor Justin Wilson and former Mayor Allison Silberberg about not accepting campaign contributions from people who do business before City Council.
“I have not accepted donations from anyone who has active business before Council. You can also look at my record when I was running for Council,” Gaskins said. “I had accepted a, I think a $250 contribution from a developer. I did not realize that they were coming before the city, and so when their development came before us, I actually recused myself from the vote.”
