NYC Carpenters Strike for Fair Contract

(source: http://www.nycdistrictcouncil.com/nyc-carpenters-strike-for-fair-contract.aspx)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Monday, July 1, 2013

NYC CARPENTERS STRIKE FOR FAIR CONTRACT

Hundreds of New York City District Council (DC) carpenters went on strike Monday after months of stalled negotiations with one of its largest contractor associations. This strike of more than 350 members will affect major construction projects around New York City and New Jersey.

“Nobody wants a strike, especially during the celebration of our country’s independence, but if we concede any further it would be detrimental to all of our members and their families,” said Stephen McInnis, Executive Secretary Treasurer of the New York City District Council of Carpenters.

The tipping point was the association’s demand for drastic wage and benefit cuts.

The Manufacturing Woodworkers Association of Greater New York (MWA), which employs union members from various District Council locals, demands a wage freeze and a second-tier employee system with lower wages and benefits.

The DC made a number of concessions to the MWA, both before and during negotiations.

The MWA’s unreasonable position isn’t good faith bargaining, according to union officials. “It’s bleeding a turnip.”

This work stoppage directly impacts more than 350 hard working New Yorkers and their families. Their work includes constructing and installing architectural woodwork and cabinetry, store interiors and fixtures, display and exhibit equipment, and architectural metal products.

Certain construction projects at 4 World Trade Center, the General Motors building on Fifth Avenue and 59th Street and the Time Warner building at Columbus Circle could be potentially halted if the workers remain on strike.

On average, members covered by this MWA contract make approximately $31 per hour with benefits. The council has started a strike fund and an assistance hotline to help its members who are now out of work.

With more than 20,000 members in eight locals, the New York City and Vicinity District Council of Carpenters is one of the largest, most powerful trade unions in the construction industry.

Nailing down a contract: Carpenters’ strike would affect WTC, other construction sites

(source: http://www.nydailynews.com/1.1386221)

From the Daily News...

The carpenters union in New York plans to put the screws to a group of construction contractors by walking off job sites Monday, the Daily News has learned.

Unless a last-minute breakthrough occurs in stalled contract talks, 350 cabinetmakers and wood installers will go on strike — affecting about a dozen commercial construction sites around the city.

“We made them an offer they can live with, and they made us an offer we have to refuse,” said Stephen McInnis, president of the District Council of Carpenters, which represents Local 2790.

Projects at 4 World Trade Center, the General Motors building on Fifth Avenue and 59th Street and the Time Warner building at Columbus Circle will halt if the workers go on strike, along with many others.

The union’s been trying to hammer out a deal with the Manufacturing Woodworkers Association for more than a year, McInniss said.

The Association wants the high-end cabinetmakers and wood installers of Local 2790 to agree to a 10-year wage freeze at the current rate of $31.24, as well as greatly reduced benefits.

McInnis said the union agreed to a 10-year-deal with wage negotiations possible in the third and seventh years — but it wouldn’t budge on benefits.

“I need a proposal I can get ratified. If I went to the membership with this, it wouldn’t pass,” he said.

The MWA wants to cap benefit contributions at 40 hours a week so it would no longer have to make pension, vacation and health care contributions on overtime pay.

McInnis said it was not fair to retroactively change the benefits structure for workers already on the job — although the union is open to making changes for new hires.

“Some of these guys have 15, 20 or 30 years on the job, you can’t go in now and fundamentally change how their benefits accrue,” he said.

The 350 members of Local 2790 voted Thursday night to go out on strike if necessary.

Lawyers for the MWA tried to obtain an emergency temporary restraining order against the union over the weekend, but a judge denied their request.

The District Council said it would alert its other construction locals to the problems with MWA.

“This will be an economic strike, and I anticipate a very favorable response among our members,” McInnis said

gotis@nydailynews.com

Even a Monkey Knows, Same Work Should Get The Same Pay

Carpenters Wield Mighty Hammer; TIAA-CREF Raises 'White Flag'

Queens, New York - After months of relentless pressure from the New York City District Council of Carpenters and its allies, the world’s second-largest pension fund has decided to sell its interests in a building “sweatshop” located at 5-11 47th Avenue in Long Island City to its former development partner for almost  $22 million.

TIAA-CREF’s decision to divest itself from the 12-story, 181-unit Queens development now under construction without the benefit of unionized workers, could signal a significant win for organized labor as the pension fund rethinks the way it approaches new development projects into the future.

Read More

Thousands Gather In Times Square To Protest Minimum Wage

 

Thousands of demonstrators hit the streets of Times Square Thursday demanding not only higher pay but health benefits and better working conditions.

Fast food employees, car wash attendants and airport workers united saying the current minimum wage is not enough to survive on.

With the debate over the "fiscal cliff" raising the possibility of tax hikes, some NY1 spoke with said financially they're already over the edge.

"You can't take care of anyone," one woman said. "Children, bills, you know, people have school tuition. We have obligations to life in general and $7.25 isn't going to help."

"Paid vacations, benefits -- we work hard," a man said. "We feel the pay should equal the work. You know, no more bounced checks."

"We believe that the economy has to work for all of New York City not just for a handful of people," said Gary LaBarbera of the NYC Building Trades Council.

Several labor unions [including the NYCDCC] and good government groups supported Thursday's rally.

Solidarity Rally for Locked Out Con Ed Workers July 17th!

We encourage our members to stand with NY & NJ labor and UWUA Local 1-2 on Tuesday, July 17 in a rally to protest Con Ed's offensive lockout that's forced 8,500 workers onto the streets. Assemble at 4:30pm at 4 Irving Place (at Irving Place and 14th Street), then march with thousands of supporters to Union Square for a 5:30pm rally!

The NYCDCC stands with our brothers and sisters at Con Edison who have been locked out by their employers. We fully support these workers as they fight for fair wages and to maintain their benefits. We also encourage our members to visit workers on the picket lines and offer encouragement and support.

One union, One fight!

Main Picket Line:

Consolidated Edison Company
4 Irving Place
New York, NY 10003

Genovese operative Joseph Olivieri sent emails from prison in attempt to get union carpenters back under mob's control: report

Monitor Dennis Walsh says mobster regularly communicated with lawyer from Fort Dix lockup

A top Mafia operative used his email access from federal prison in an attempt get union carpenters - the city's biggest trade group - back under the mob's thumb, a new report reveals.

Ironworkers bend on wages

The ironworkers' union—desperate to regain market share from surging nonunion construction, and afraid of missing out on lucrative work at Hudson Yards and the Tappan Zee Bridge—has agreed to an unprecedented wage and benefit rollback. It's already shaking up development in the city.

Members of Metallic Lathers and Reinforcing Ironworkers Local 46 voted earlier this month to cut their overall compensation by 15%, or by about $14 an hour, and to work-rule changes that could slash total project costs by up to 25%.

The 1,500-member union relinquished a 4% raise this year and cut next year's scheduled 4% increase to 2%. Wages and benefits will now total $79 an hour instead of the $93 the union had previously won in -negotiations. 

In addition, the union members agreed to allow on job sites a higher percentage of apprentices, who earn less than half the standard pay, and to expand the workday to eight hours from seven.

The unusual decision to amend their existing contracts across the board comes as the ironworkers face the possibility that the Tappan Zee Bridge could be rebuilt without them—with steel fabricated offsite to save the state money—and as the heavyweight real estate developer Related Cos. aggressively seeks cost savings to jump-start its massive Hudson Yards project on the West Side.

Related officials want to build union, but are engaged in complex talks with labor leaders to bring down costs and have threatened to use a combination of union and nonunion workers if the discussions don't produce sufficient savings.

"It's whether we want to hang on to our business or not," said Terrence Moore, who took over as business manager of Local 46 in November. "Most of the guys who have been doing this 20 or 30 years have helped put their kids through school and done the things they want to do. Now it's the next generation's turn. If we don't do something, there's not going to be a next generation." 

Shortly after Local 46 members approved the rollback, Related said it might build luxury-goods maker Coach's new Hudson Yards headquarters with reinforced concrete instead of steel, a rarity for a commercial building in the city. That would create jobs for Local 46 members who bend the steel rods that reinforce concrete. (Steelworkers handle traditional steel construction.) Related declined to comment.

Residential buildings in the city are routinely built with reinforced concrete, as are commercial ones across the country and around the world. It's less expensive than steel, and technology improvements mean quality isn't sacrificed, though controls need to be greater. In New York, where construction methods are entrenched, steel has ruled in commercial buildings. The most significant exception is 505 Fifth Ave., which the Kipp-Stawski Group built using concrete.

Mr. Moore said that the union has lost about 80% of the market in Brooklyn and Queens and 30% to 40% in Manhattan to nonunion labor. The prospect of losing some of the $15 billion Hudson Yards project and the Tappan Zee job, which would be about $17 million worth of work for his members, prompted passage of the rollback with 86% of the vote. Some of his members expressed concern that the industry would be emboldened to ask for more and more cuts, but Mr. Moore's argument that the union had to adapt or die won out.

Read entire article

Labor leader Ed Malloy dies at 77

Edward Malloy, a dapper, tireless labor leader who steered the city and state construction trades council for nearly two decades, died Tuesday after a bout with cancer. He was 77.

A veteran of the U.S. Army and a former steamfitter, Mr. Malloy served as president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York from 1992 to 2008 and as president of the New York State Building and Construction Trades Council from 1992 until his retirement earlier this year.

“His hard work and wit allowed him to pass easily from union halls to business board rooms and the chambers of government,” said Gary LaBarbera, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York.

Perhaps Mr. Malloy's proudest moment was serving as grand marshal of the St. Patrick's' Day Parade in 2001. But he was a driving force for private economic development and public infrastructure improvements throughout the city and state, promoting measures to contain construction costs and maximize employment opportunities for his members.

“He worked tirelessly with public officials, investors and labor leaders to get major infrastructure projects off the ground and create jobs in every corner of the state,” said Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

“What was unique about Eddie was he was not only a labor leader, but an industry and civic leader,” said Louis Coletti, president of the Building Trades Employers Association. “He cared deeply about the future direction of the city.”

Mr. Coletti said he'd always know if Mr. Malloy was going to reject one of his ideas because he “would have that Irish twinkle in his eyes and say, ‘Let me give that more thought.' ”

Mr. Malloy pioneered the use of project labor agreements to cut costs on major public projects, deals that are now widely used throughout the industry. A PLA in 1994 for $130 million in repairs on the Tappan Zee Bridge was the first of its kind on a major public works project in the state.

“In one blunt sentence he'd say, ‘Look, my job is to find 130,000 jobs a year. That's the job,' ” said Ed Ott, a lecturer in labor studies at the CUNY Murphy Institute. “Everything he did, that was his yardstick.”

He also worked to diversify the construction industry, launching programs to provide access to careers in the building trades for young people, veterans, minorities and women. Project Pathways, which he helped start, expanded access to unionized apprenticeships for graduates of public high schools. The program was later transferred to a nonprofit that bears his name.

More than just construction workers benefited from Mr. Malloy's efforts. Denis Hughes, former president of the state AFL-CIO, recalled him going to bat for legislation his group was pushing to help farm workers.

“Eddie Malloy was the first guy to call me from my executive board to say he wanted to help get this done,” Mr. Hughes said.

Many recalled his actions in the days and weeks following the terrorist attacks of 2001.

“After 9/11 there were a lot of folks who were trying to figure out how they could help,” said Vincent Alvarez, president of the Central Labor Council. “Eddie told the members, ‘Let's get down there, let's help out.' Everyone remembers the workers lined up on West Street, ready to do what they could.”

Mr. Ott called the role played by Mr. Malloy after the attacks “absolutely heroic” and said, “He fought like hell to make sure these guys had the proper stuff they needed to protect themselves. He knew it was a dangerous situation.”

Mr. Malloy was known for talking with friends and foes alike. “He realized he had to work with everyone to get the job done, long before that was en vogue,” said Mario Cilento, president of the state AFL-CIO.

A wake will be held on Thursday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel on Madison Avenue. A funeral mass will be said on Friday at 10 a.m. at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Fraternal Order of Woodworkers Announcement

From FOWNYC.COM:

The Fraternal Order of Woodworkers are proud to announce we have reached a milestone that no one ever predicted would happen. Through dedication, perseverance, unity and team work we are celebrating our 8th year Anniversary!

Please come down and join in on April 26th, 2012 at Twins Public House.
All current members are asked to please join us at this important gathering to secure your place on our roster.

We have close to 400 members and we would like to up-date our list of members for all future mail outs and emails.

A special thanks to all our guest speakers, unions supporters and volunteers who have been crucial to our successes.

There will be food, tee shirts, tools, raffles, music and camaraderie that will be remembered for years to come.

Please bring down a fellow woodworker whom you feel would benefit from what the F.O.W. is achieving.

FOWNYC.COM