Protesting cuts to construction workers’ pay
By
NEW YORK--Nearly 400 rank-and-file construction workers held a May 24 rally to protest against New York City's Building Trades Employers' Association (BTEA). The rally took place across the street from Cipriani's Restaurant on Wall Street, where 200 contractors were attending a $750-a-plate black-tie dinner.
The BTEA launched a campaign in March that was aimed at pressuring unionized construction workers to accept a 20 percent cut in wages and benefits, along with other concessions. The campaign consisted of subway advertisements, letters to employees stapled to their checks, a website, and op-eds in various papers.
With 22 collective bargaining agreements to be renegotiated by June 30, 2011, the BTEA is seeking to increase profits by using the economic downturn to force the unions into accepting these concessions, with the threat of decertification of the unions if they don't comply.
The Association of Master Painters and Decorators of New York and the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 9, which constituted a majority of those at the protest, were the first to have their contracts renegotiated. The new four-year contract that they agreed to amounts to a 20 percent cut in wages, no employer contributions to the pension fund over four years, no employer contributions to health benefit funds from May 2012 to May 2014, as well as no overtime for shift work on Manhattan interior work.
In the construction industry, medical and pension benefits are based on hours worked--and taking away those paid benefit hours translates into workers who have been out of work losing medical and pension coverage. These cuts bring DC 9's union scale close to that of the level paid by nonunion painting contractors--and may trigger wage cuts on the nonunion side as a result.
The agreement also includes significant changes to work rules and practices, such as no restrictions on the type of work that apprentices can perform, forcing the painters to work on stilts, and the abolishment of the hiring hall. Not having a hiring hall means that workers will only work at a contractor's whim, and will have no recourse to the union if they cannot find a job on their own.
The group that called the rally, Construction Workers Rank and File Organized, were acting completely independent of their unions. They carried signs saying "No pay cuts" and handed out fliers to passersby.
A comment shouted from the crowd sums up the general feeling of the workers: "We can't afford the studios we build for these people--and they want to cut our wages?"
