Labor smells a rat on Columbus Avenue

There is a giant rat on Columbus Avenue.

Since July, in the heart of Columbus Square’s long-enduring construction site between 97th and 100th streets, a tall, sneering, inflatable rat has sat every workday from 7 a.m. into the afternoon. It is a symbol of protest against the site’s developers, Stellar Management and the Chetrit Group, who earlier this summer switched from a unionized project to an “open shop” workplace, which means the majority of workers on the site are now non-union laborers.

This development—consisting of five new residential towers and over 10 retail sites—has been reshaping its surrounding neighborhood landscape for the past 3 1/2 years. And the newest member of the construction site, the giant rat, has only added to increasing contention over the three-block transformation.

While the head honchos on the project continue to argue that they abandoned the union contracts as a financial necessity to keep the development above water, local labor union leaders stand post every day to criticize the developers for paying workers less than half of the prevailing wage and letting unsafe and possibly illegal conditions persist.

Lost jobs and saved pennies

Paul Fischer, a local resident on 97th Street, worked as part of the site safety crew on the development in the fall of 2008. Hired by the union contractor as a member of the mason tenders’ union, Fischer got paid a standard union wage.

He has worked several jobs throughout the city since then but said he much prefers to work locally. “This is my neighborhood,” he explained, noting that his kids played in the area now home to a large construction crane.

Fischer was very upset when he heard the news that Laurence Gluck, founder of Stellar Management (and who also happens to be Fischer’s personal landlord), was abandoning most of the union contracts.

“For him to go back on an agreement and not pay people the living wage—some people who are just barely making ends meet—it is really unfair,” he said.

He said that if the job were still unionized, he’d be on it. But he could not realistically work a non-union job in which he would be paid half or less of his original wage that also no longer offered medical benefits, a pension, or a secure retirement fund.

According to the New York City District Council of Carpenters organizer Andres Puerta, the owner of the inflatable rat, upwards of 80 workers on the site lost jobs. He added that many previous union workers on the site are still likely having difficulties finding work in this economy.

Walter Pitt, whose income supports his six kids, was a carpenter on the job until the developers abandoned the union contracts. “I was working one day, and then my boss told us to stop working and pack up our tools,” Pitt said. “I was very upset.”

But as members of the union, Pitt and Fischer could not agree to work under these new, unfavorable conditions that the management was requiring to save money. “It smells to me like a real aggressive money grab,” Puerta said. “They increase profits by destroying labor standards.”

Peter Rosenberg, director of development on the site for Stellar Management, said that they do not have figures for how may workers actually lost jobs, but they do know that the number of jobs on site has remained virtually unchanged. Though workers were temporarily laid off, he added that many were likely moved to other union jobs shortly after the open shop agreement was finalized.

Kathy Cudahy, spokesperson for Chetrit, responded to complaints by saying that it was a decision the developers made due to financial realities. “This is very simple. It is about cost,” she said.

“This was strictly a business decision.”

Rosenberg said that one of the main lenders on the project pulled out last year and from there it was a bit of an economic downward slope. He said that they sat down with the major unions and tried to work out a compromise, but ultimately they were not able to agree on concessions that supported both the demands of the laborers and the tight cost model created by the recession.

“There were two options. Either shut down, build a fence, and wait for something to happen in this financial market, or go open shop and finish,” he said, adding, “We didn’t want to leave open holes in the ground. That is not good for us, and that is not good for the community.”

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A new workplace

Today, in the new open-shop environment, the construction is less safe and a lot slower, according to labor organizer Puerta.

He said that the union workers were able to put up about three floors a week on the new building on the east side of the avenue. But with mostly non-union workers, he has seen firsthand that it takes significantly longer. “The union was doing a great job,” Pitt, one of the laid-off workers, said. “Why did it have to turn non-union?”

Rosenberg said the only delays that have occurred were those in the spring due to the growing financial woes that forced Stellar and Chetrit to convert to an open shop agreement in the first place.

Puerta also questioned the safety of the construction site. “All union workers are very trained and have continual safety classes as part of the union commitment,” he argued. “These [current] workers don’t have that.” Puerta said that two weeks ago, the Department of Buildings momentarily shut down the project due to a violation.

Yet Rosenberg said that this kind of temporary shutdown is common and could have just as easily happened on a unionized project.

Rosenberg added, “We are running one of the safest jobs that I have ever been involved in.” Along with more rigorous training in conjunction with new codes and requirements, Rosenberg said that they have 50 inspectors on site to call 311 in case of any violations. Plus, he said they have a state of the art crane built in 2006, which is the most vetted piece of equipment available in the city.

One current non-union laborer on the job, who wanted his name withheld for fear of retribution, said that there have been several instances in which non-union workers have not been properly paid overtime. He also said that he was aware of several laborers who were working as undocumented immigrants.

The anonymous worker expressed his frustration with the non-union job. “I only get paid 20 dollars an hour,” he said, adding that he has to provide for his wife and daughter. “We want to be in the union.”

Puerta said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if a bulk of the workforce is undocumented. Then you have a quiet workforce, afraid to stand up for themselves.”

Rosenberg said that every contractor has to have a regular payroll, so every worker must be documented. He declined to comment on the worker’s accusation of uncompensated overtime hours, saying that those transactions are handled directly with companies and their employees.

In response to all of the accusations, he said, “We are working harder than we’ve ever worked—especially now that we are under the microscope.”

A roadblock for the Community Board

A month ago, Helen Rosenthal, chair of Community Board 7, was walking through the avenue-in-flux when she saw the giant rat. She inquired to Puerta, who has made his presence on site a full-time job. After that, Rosenthal proceeded to set up a small Community Board committee to investigate the situation further.

The board met with Puerta, and after hearing his concerns on behalf of the union workers, she set up a meeting with representatives from the developers directly.

After a steering committee meeting in the last week of August, Rosenthal said she was very concerned about the safety of workers on the site.

Weeks later though, she admitted that the Community Board could not go any further, despite her strong desires to continue pursuing labor rights.

“CB7 is not in the position to be a mediator or an arbiter,” she said, adding disappointedly that there is not much that they could realistically do that would be effective in helping the workers.

“I think the developers want us to think this ship has sailed,” she said. “But labor does not think that.”

Though she does not think that the board will end up passing any resolution on the matter, Rosenthal said that, on a personal level, she is still very concerned and wishes that the unions and developers could find a common ground.

But from the perspective of CB7 member Sheldon Fine, who was the previous chair of the board, this ship has in fact sailed.

“My personal conclusion is that there is a safe environment there,” he said. “Personally, I don’t think that this needs to be pursued further.”

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Protesting the protest

While the community board is at a standstill, some on-site workers and managers have said that the rat and all it represents continue to anger them.

The superintendent of construction on the site and the current safety manager, who both requested that their names be kept anonymous to protect their jobs, argued that the site is as safe now as it was three years ago when the project started.

“It bothers me—this rat, scumbag, scaring tactic,” the construction superintendent said of the union protesters who have become a staple presence on the site. “Yes, everyone wants to be in the union—they all want those benefits, but these workers here now are working hard and making a decent living,” he said.

The safety manager also criticized the union’s protest. He said, “It is political—it is all about who you know.” He said that while union protection is good in theory, often times it becomes “all about the money” to the point where workers are not effectively doing their jobs and can get away with it.

Both agreed that the switch to an open shop, which did not affect their personal wages or benefits, was a reasonable decision. “These are economic realities,” the safety manager said.

Most importantly, they argued, no serious concessions were made.

The safety manager added of the protesters, “They are not worried about the non-union workers. They are looking to push them away.”

In response to these accusations, Puerta said, “We want to organize so that everyone on the job can make the standard wage.” As for the idea that his protests were exclusively favoring the union and not the current workers, he said, “That is total bullshit.”

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