Local contractors say they’ve been left out at the Hyundai megasite
“They were just dangling the carrot in front of us”
BRYAN COUNTY, Ga. (WTOC) - Local contractors say they’ve been left out when it comes to working on the multi-billion dollar Hyundai project.
WTOC Investigates has previously uncovered major safety issues at the site that have cost subcontractors hundreds of thousands of dollars, as well as the exploitation of migrant workers on the project.
Now, we’re hearing from local contractors that say they’ve been left out in favor of illegal labor, but some local construction workers say there were more than enough local contractors to take care of the job site.
“We got to get cars to the market. I think that’s one thing that Hyundai understands very quickly. It was one reason that they chose Georgia. It’s because we can deliver the workforce and we can get speed to the market for them,” Georgia Governor Brian Kemp told WTOC at the Hyundai Megasite’s groundbreaking ceremony in October 2022.
The announcement of the plant had Barry Zeigler, the business manager of the Local 188 Plumbers and Pipefitters Union, and other local construction workers intrigued.
“I was super excited, super excited. You know, a lot of job opportunities there. Not just while it was being constructed but after the construction as well. With the jobs that were being brought to the area,” Zeigler says, adding he assumed he might be able to get a little work at the site.
A multi-billion dollar project in Zeigler’s backyard could mean a massive economic, and work/life balance opportunity.
“It would’ve been a lot different. A lot different on people’s families, instead of someone having to travel out of state to go to work, they could’ve been right here working at the Hyundai plant,” says Zeigler.
The majority of the contractors and subcontractors that have been awarded work at the Hyundai megasite are not local to Coastal Georgia.
WTOC Investigates analyzed records from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Bryan County work permits, and statements made by Hyundai.
We have found that there are at least 130 different contractors that have worked at the site. Of those 130, 12 have addresses in the Coastal Empire.
On that list is one of the few companies Hyundai announced it had awarded work to: McLendon, a Vidalia based company. When reached by phone, the company says they’re responsible for clearing land at the site but not actually building anything.
There’s also Mill Creek Construction Company, Boykin Erectors, and Erickson Associates- three companies with decades-long histories in the area.
Georgia Secretary of State records show every other subcontractor with a local address was formed less than three weeks before groundbreaking on the plant or after groundbreaking.
Some of those subcontractors also don’t have business addresses.
Doochang is registered to a townhouse in Pooler, while HEMS Georgia is registered to an apartment in Savannah.
SDY Engineering is registered to a business park. We went there and met a worker who only spoke Korean. He called a translator also with the company, who said they do electrical and HVAC work at the megasite.
Hyundai’s contract with the Georgia Department of Economic Development and the local Joint Development Authority (JDA) stipulates they have to create over 8,000 new jobs by 2031, but the contract doesn’t require them to source labor locally. They’re receiving over a billion dollars in tax breaks for choosing to build in Georgia.
We asked Trip Tollison of the JDA whether requiring Hyundai to use local labor was ever considered as part of their contract.
“Usually when we do these contracts or development agreements, it’s for the hiring, the full time jobs and the investment. I haven’t seen a contract where it demands local labor for construction. We encourage it,” says Tollison.
Tollison pointed to several events that were held to connect local contractors and vendors with job opportunities at the plant. He told WTOC in an interview at one of those events in April 2023, “We want as much business to stay within the region as possible.”
According to JDA records, around 640 companies filled out their “vendor opportunity form,” which was meant for companies to express their interest in getting connected with work at the site, though there was no guarantee.
WTOC Investigates reached out to all 640 companies, asking whether or not they ended up getting work at the site. 250 companies responded. Of those, 27 of them got work.
“Is there any follow up there on whether or not they had actually employed any of those contractors?” WTOC Investigative Reporter Shea Schrader asked Tollison.
“Every so often we would get basically a percentage of, this amount of subcontractors or folks are from the State of Georgia, this amount are from outside the state. And we would routinely follow that through the construction process, but that’s about it.”
Zeigler says that he was invited to a similar event when the plant was in its early phases.
“Come to find out the work had already been awarded. And so, basically, they were just dangling the carrot in front of us,” Zeigler says.
“I haven’t heard anything about that, no one’s contacted us about it so, I mean, if there’s a dangled carrot in front of them, that kind of stinks of they were too late or got there and were promised something that didn’t happen,” says Tollison.
In that 2023 interview with WTOC, Tollison had expressed that some work would likely need to be outsourced.
“Inside the facility, there is a tremendous amount of sophisticated, proprietary equipment. Installing that equipment I would imagine is a very specialized operation,” Tollison says.
Zeigler says that he believes some of the work however, could’ve been completed by local contractors: for example, HVAC work that has been outsourced to foreign companies.
“We haven’t been able to get our local contractors out there to get some work because we don’t work the undocumented workers. We work American workers,” says Zeigler.
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The structure on the jobsite is the general contractor, Hyundai Engineering America, then hires subcontractors, who are free to hire their own subcontractors, and so on. Zeigler says he and other contractors are concerned they were overlooked in favor of cheaper, illegal labor.
An ongoing lawsuit against two of Hyundai’s subcontractors alleges just that: that several migrant workers were denied pay they were owed and misclassified as independent contractors. A settlement has been reached, but a judge hasn’t signed off on it yet.
“I’m sure they figured that they can bring these contractors in who’ll work the undocumented workers, for example, and pay them low wages compared to what we get paid and there you go. I don’t know how they can even get away with it,” Zeigler says.
We repeatedly asked Hyundai to provide us with a complete list of their contractors and they refused our request every time.
They did send over answers to several written questions:
We also reached out to Governor Brian Kemp multiple times about the allegations of safety hazards on the site, the presence of undocumented workers, and the lack of local contractors on the site. He declined to comment or give an interview.
So did multiple Bryan County officials, including Carter Infinger, the Chairman of the Bryan County Commission.
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