PLA Agreement for Union Jobs Left to Expire
By Dan Murphy
Hundreds of Union construction workers and allies rallied recently outside City Hall, chanting “No extension, no election” and “We will remember in November,” pointed at Mayor Mike Spano, who was holding a holiday party inside. The construction workers and members of several unions were protesting the decision by the Yonkers Industrial Development Agency not to renew a requirement for new development jobs of $5 million or more in the city to require a project labor agreements in publicly subsidized development.
A PLA is a comprehensive pre-hire agreement that provides owners and contractors access to the skilled workforce necessary for complex projects. Construction union members living in Yonkers, and many others who seek to have a lifelong career in the building trades, say they are being shut out of the city’s billion-dollar building boom, despite the public’s investment in development through tax breaks and the sale of public land.
During a Dec. 19 meeting, the IDA passed a law requiring PLAs, which created a one-year pilot during which all projects exceeding $5 million need to sign a PLA.
Since that time, developers have held off on applying for public support through the IDA. A number of projects have been announced or come back to life as the expiration of the pilot approaches.
With the pilot set to expire, the building trades and their allies are pushing to extend the IDA-PLA for another five years.
“We want to work where we live,” said Anthony Ascencao, business manager of Laborers Local 60. “Without fair labor standards in place, cheaper, less skilled and unsafe workers are brought in from out of state and when they leave their wages flow out of Yonkers. A project labor agreement insures that local workers on a publicly supported project receive fair wages and benefits and support the economic growth of the City of Yonkers. Developers receiving tax breaks from the IDA should support the local economy by hiring local workers.”
Other projects that construction unions point to that have been announced and/or come back to life as the language appears to be about to expire include the 255-unit Kimball Residences, which had a zoning hearing Dec. 18; developer Martin Ginsberg’s 600-unit project in the Ludlow area, which was announced last fall but seemed to stall for several months until picking back up in September; and the redevelopment of Chicken Island, announced last month.
A PLA establishes the terms and conditions for labor in advance so that contractors are able to make exact bids; eliminates cost-overruns and project delays; ensures value, quality and cost savings for owners and/or taxpayers; and fuels the growth of communities.
PLAs are especially useful because they simplify the construction process and facilitate on-time, on-budget project completion.
At the same time construction union workers protested outside City Hall, the Yonkers IDA met with building trades members and called for the extension of the PLA language for at least five years.
Westchester-Putnam Building Trades Council President Ed Doyle said: “The building trades of Westchester and Putnam are asking the mayor and his Industrial Development Agency to extend the project labor agreements requirements on all future work. Using union contractors will insure and guarantee that all city tax and applicable taxes are paid by the contractors protecting city residents and helping the city survive.
“We are concerned that Yonkers’ underground economy is thriving under this Yonkers mayor and his handpicked IDA. The underground economy promotes wage theft, under-the-table cash payments and other social ills. This creates millions for the developers who reap mortgage tax savings, tax-free building materials, and more from the IDA.
“Back door deals have hurt our Yonkers members, city workers, residents, the schools and the children. We want our union members to be able to work in their city and be able to protect their city with the use of legitimate union contractors with proper taxes being paid to the city. This building boom touted by the mayor and his IDA has failed his city and its residents,” said Doyle.
It was only one year ago that Doyle and Spano came to an agreement on a one-year PLA that included negotiations and union give-backs.
Mayor Mike Spano said, “For the past year, Yonkers required union labor on all major development projects we assist. This experiment failed because the union leadership used it as an excuse to increase prices rather than promote jobs. As a result, developers stayed away and the pipeline of new projects is empty. For the sake of the City’s future, we must allow competition to work once again — that’s how we have had nearly $3 billion in development and thousands of jobs in the past seven years, and it’s how we’ll continue to create jobs in the future. I look forward to continue working with labor as all sides must work together.”
At the rally outside City Hall, Doyle said: “This is all-out war. He (Mayor Spano) made a mistake. I have worked with Yonkers mayors of both political parties since the 1980s – Mayors Martinelli, Zaleski, Waisiscko, Spencer and Amicone. Every one of those mayors did union work with the IDA, but this mayor is different. You think Trump is bad? The Spano’s are worse.”
Doyle said Mayor Spano and the Spano’s chose to support “rat contractors” over their own union residents, voters and taxpayers in Yonkers, and together with the 200 protestors, walked into the mayor’s holiday party, which made an uncomfortable situation for everyone there, and maybe a prelude of what is to come.
We spoke to Doyle after the rally and he said the mayor’s recent comments that the PLA was costing taxpayers money is not true.
“A PLA doesn’t cost the taxpayers a dime,” he said. “It costs the developer and the contractors. We offer 20 percent off a PLA contract in most cases, and I praised the mayor last year for having the guts to do one in Yonkers. But now a lot of developers have been sitting back, waiting for the PLA to expire.”
Doyle also said = the $250,000 spent to train construction workers for union jobs has resulted in 25 new trainees, working at job sites outside of Yonkers, because of the lack of union construction work in the city.
Yonkers resident and founder of Bringourjobshome.com Frank Spotorno attended the rally and told Yonkers Rising: “This has been my life’s work for many years, to expose shifty and shady developers who hire non-union workers. I have been traveling to construction jobs sites in New York City and now Yonkers, where I see this all the time.
“I absolutely support renewing the PLA in Yonkers because it will mean good-paying union jobs for construction workers, many of whom live in Yonkers, and pay their taxes, instead of hiring out-of-state workers who are non-union and don’t contribute to our city,” said Spotorno. “In the end, a PLA saves you money if you consider the jobs it creates for Yonkers residents.”
City Council President Mike Khader and Assemblyman -elect Nader Sayegh also appeared at the rally.
