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March 25, 2011
Getting ready for modular construction? NYC Building Trades Employers' Association asks unions to drop restrictions on off-site work
Atlantic Yards Report
Modular construction, apparently, is one of the negotiating points between contractors and union workers.
Union radical Gregory Butler, on his Gangbox News blog, recently posted THE BUILDING TRADES EMPLOYERS ASSOCIATION'S 26 POINT ULTIMATUM TO THE NEW YORK BUILDING TRADES, from the Building Trades Employers' Association (BTEA), which represents "1,700 construction managers, general contractors and specialty subcontractor firms in New York City."
It included cuts in wages, no overtime for make-up work, a cut in overtime pay from double to time-and-a-half, and rule changes, but the key passages, at least regarding Forest City Ratner's plans for modular construction of towers at the Atlantic Yards site, are these:
#6. No limitations on materials, supplies or equipment, regardless of their source or origin;
#7. Elimination of prohibitions of or restrictions on work which is performed off-site on materials or products modified or fabricated for installation on the project;
The larger context
On March 19, in a front-page article headlined Trade Unions in City Confront a Rise in Nonunion Projects, the New York Times pointed to the BTEA's new Build Union Jobs web site (screenshot at right) and noted that "what may be their most tense contract negotiations in years" is imminent:
The employers have backed off an initial demand for wage cuts, but they are still aiming for a 25 percent cut in labor costs, by reducing benefits and changing some work rules. They say these changes would allow them to better compete with nonunionized companies, which are winning jobs from developers because their costs are 20 to 30 percent cheaper.
The Times article leaves the impression that some rules that clearly need changing--such as requiring three operating engineers in place when only one is needed--while others may be efforts to extract more profits.
The Times article mentions Atlantic Yards, but not the request for rule changes regarding off-site construction:
And this week, the developer of the Atlantic Yards megaproject in Brooklyn said it was seriously considering using a prefabricated method to build its residential high-rise. While most of the workers would be unionized, there would be fewer of them and they would earn less money because much of the labor would be done in a factory, where wage scales are lower than on the site.
Posted by eric at March 25, 2011 10:51 AM