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June 24, 2011
Strike threatens $10B in construction projects
If operating engineers man picket lines when their contracts expire June 30, construction across the city will halt, idling more than 11,000 workers, according to a survey. It's happened before.
Crain's NY Business
by Daniel Massey
The 2012 Brooklyn Nets might yet be the New Jersey Nets.
With a contract deadline a week away, a survey of developers has found that a work stoppage by operating engineers could silence construction on private-sector projects worth nearly $10 billion and temporarily idle more than 11,300 workers.
With the operating engineers' union contracts set to expire June 30, the Real Estate Board of New York survey shows that work could stop on commercial and retail projects spanning more than 13 million square feet and on residential sites totaling more than 6,300 units.
Projects that could be halted include Forest City Ratner's Barclays Center in Brooklyn, which employs 1,000 construction workers.
Either half of those "1,000 construction workers" must have invisibility cloaks, or Crain's needs to count again.
Posted by eric at June 24, 2011 5:01 PM