The Regional Plan Association has joined builders and real estate executives in calling for major concessions from the unions that dominate the construction industry, saying cuts are needed to allow major projects to move forward, according to an article in yesterday's edition of The New York Times by Charles V. Bagli.
The group is supported by corporations, including some connected to real estate, and by planning groups in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut and is a respected organization known more for advocacy on transportation issues and large public works than for taking sides in labor matters.
The association has quietly circulated a 51-page report saying that the expiration of 30 union contracts in June presents a chance to reform the $25 billion unionized construction industry by eliminating what the report calls obsolete work rules and featherbedding; by adopting a standard eight-hour day for all building trades; and by reducing benefit packages, the article said.
Members of the association were scheduled to present the report, "Construction Labor Costs in New York City - A Moment of Opportunity," to Deputy Mayors Stephen Goldsmith and Robert K. Steel today, the article said.
"'Given the wrenching changes in the real estate industry since the recession,' said Robert Yaro, the president of the Regional Plan Association, 'a growing number of builders have found that they can no longer support high labor costs,'" the article said.
The labor negotiations come at a critical time for the construction industry, as a growing number of buildings in the city are being constructed with cheaper, nonunion labor, the article noted, adding that "the Building Trades Employers' Association, a group that represents contractors, has paid for subway advertisements and a Web site directly appealing to union members to agree to concessions, angering union leadership in the process."
"This month, 400 union construction workers held a noisy protest outside the Taj Pierre Hotel as Sam Zell, founder of Equity Residential Properties, arrived for a speaking engagement. Mr. Zell's company is building an apartment building at 500 West 23rd Street with nonunion labor," the article said. Adding that "the construction unions dismissed the report, saying its authors were antagonistic to labor unions. They were referring to Julia Vitullo-Martin and Hope Cohen, former associates of the conservative Manhattan Institute who now work at the Regional Plan Association and prepared the report."
"So individuals with longstanding right-wing, anti-worker associations and views want to blame labor for our economic problems," said Paul Fernandes, a spokesman for Gary LaBarbera, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council, a union umbrella group, the article said. "This draft report is rife with factual errors and omissions that reveal its underlying ideology," he added. "The only thing missing from this piece of garbage is the Koch brothers and the governor of Wisconsin."
The group is supported by corporations, including some connected to real estate, and by planning groups in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut and is a respected organization known more for advocacy on transportation issues and large public works than for taking sides in labor matters.
The association has quietly circulated a 51-page report saying that the expiration of 30 union contracts in June presents a chance to reform the $25 billion unionized construction industry by eliminating what the report calls obsolete work rules and featherbedding; by adopting a standard eight-hour day for all building trades; and by reducing benefit packages, the article said.
Members of the association were scheduled to present the report, "Construction Labor Costs in New York City - A Moment of Opportunity," to Deputy Mayors Stephen Goldsmith and Robert K. Steel today, the article said.
"'Given the wrenching changes in the real estate industry since the recession,' said Robert Yaro, the president of the Regional Plan Association, 'a growing number of builders have found that they can no longer support high labor costs,'" the article said.
The labor negotiations come at a critical time for the construction industry, as a growing number of buildings in the city are being constructed with cheaper, nonunion labor, the article noted, adding that "the Building Trades Employers' Association, a group that represents contractors, has paid for subway advertisements and a Web site directly appealing to union members to agree to concessions, angering union leadership in the process."
"This month, 400 union construction workers held a noisy protest outside the Taj Pierre Hotel as Sam Zell, founder of Equity Residential Properties, arrived for a speaking engagement. Mr. Zell's company is building an apartment building at 500 West 23rd Street with nonunion labor," the article said. Adding that "the construction unions dismissed the report, saying its authors were antagonistic to labor unions. They were referring to Julia Vitullo-Martin and Hope Cohen, former associates of the conservative Manhattan Institute who now work at the Regional Plan Association and prepared the report."
"So individuals with longstanding right-wing, anti-worker associations and views want to blame labor for our economic problems," said Paul Fernandes, a spokesman for Gary LaBarbera, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council, a union umbrella group, the article said. "This draft report is rife with factual errors and omissions that reveal its underlying ideology," he added. "The only thing missing from this piece of garbage is the Koch brothers and the governor of Wisconsin."
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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