SCHODACK — About 100 union members and protestors rallied Tuesday morning in front of a future Amazon warehouse, demanding the company stop using out-of-area workers to develop the site.

The protestors lined the area in front of the Route 9 property, blaring sirens and '80s hair metal. They were joined by giant inflatable rats and fat cats clutching money bags in one hand and wringing the neck of an operating engineer in the other.

The rally, organized by the Greater Capital Region Building and Construction Trades Council, had a three-pronged purpose: to demand that the site's developer not receive the estimated $13 million in tax subsidies it requested; to ask that such incentives be predicated on the use of local workers and contractors; and to urge the New York legislature to pass a bill defining a "public work" as any project that receives state funding.

“We’ve been after the construction manager and Amazon to come sit with us," said Jeff Stark, president of the Building Trades. "This is one of the most highly dense union densities in the country, and they shouldn’t be taking corporate welfare with no commitment to the local economy.

"We’re here today to tell them: not here, not now," Stark added. "This is a union town, and they’re going to sit down with us — hopefully.”

A spokeswoman for Scannell Properties, the site's developer, declined to comment when reached by the Times Union on Tuesday afternoon.

The estimated $100 million warehouse has come under criticism since the Schodack Planning Board approved Amazon's lease on the site in July 2018. Soon after, a group of roughly 50 homeowners who call themselves the Birchwood Association sued the town's planning board, accusing it of failing to order an environmental review of the project. State Supreme Court Justice Patrick McGrath of Rensselaer County dismissed the suit in January — a decision which the homeowners are appealing.

Last week, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand referenced the Amazon project when announcing her Build Local, Hire Local Act, legislation that would steer subsidized construction projects toward local, union-friendly companies.

“Those are jobs that could have gone to workers in the Capital Region — and they should have," Gillibrand said.

Amazon has taken criticism for its resistance to seeing its workforce unionize. That stance was one of the reasons why the company faced a rocky road last year when it considered building a new headquarters in New York City — a project it scuttled in February amid opposition.

Throughout the protest, work trucks from a Connecticut company drove in and out of the site. Some protestors momentarily stopped a line of trucks from entering, blowing horns at and arguing with the drivers. Organizers of the rally eventually asked people to move out of the way, stopping traffic to allow some trucks to leave.

One man walked around the rally wearing a Jeff Bezos name tag, a pig mask and fake $100 bills stuffed in his suit pockets. "Just Another Greedy Corporate Pig," read a piece of paper taped to his back. Several drivers in tractor-trailers and work trucks honked in support of the rally.

Patrick Geoghegan, a union electrician from Halfmoon, attended the rally with his pit bull mix Molly. He said he doesn't mind out-of-town workers being used for the project, as long as the locals are included as well. He has had to travel frequently for work and is disappointed that he can't work on a project in his own backyard, he said.

"I would much rather be working up here and sleeping in my own bed at night instead of being on the road myself,” he said. “I want good, well-paying jobs for the area that I live in.”

About a half-dozen vehicles with New York license plates were visible immediately inside the development. Some organizers said they believed the in-state cars were strategically placed in view of the protestors to placate the group.

"It’s disheartening to see all the out-of-town plates," said Building Trades Vice President Anthony Fresina. "You have Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont — all over the place except New York. New York should build New York. ... We’re taxpayers here and we should build this project."

The organizers said they recognize the site's workers are only trying to make a living, but insisted local workers making union wages are the best fit for the job.

"It’s a matter of pride in your workmanship," Fresina said. "If you live in the area, you have to drive by this building every day. These people don’t. They leave to come back to wherever they came from, and they never see this place again.

"They have no stake here,” he said.

Michael.Williams@timesunion.com or 518-454-5018