Unions push labor protection for gov’s state housing plan
ALBANY — Politically powerful union leaders in New York are stepping up their push to to get more worker protections included in Gov. Hochul’s ambitious plan to boost housing.
The head of 32BJ SEIU, the largest service workers union in the country, is among those calling for fair wage and labor standards to be baked into plans to overhaul housing across the Empire State.
“Trying to create more housing without fair wage and labor standards will just erode the foundation that working-class affordability is built on,” 32BJ President Manny Pastreich told the Daily News on Monday.
“We can and must do both: improve and expedite the path to building more affordable housing, while making sure that family-sustaining wages are a part of that process,” he added.
Hochul, a Democrat, is hoping to address the state’s housing crisis with her New York Housing Compact, a blueprint she says will set the state on the path to building 800,000 new homes over the next decade.
The plan, being negotiated with the Dem-led Legislature ahead of the state’s April 1 budget deadline, would compel every municipality in the state to add to their housing stock and impose growth targets.
New York City and surrounding suburbs would have to increase housing units by 3% every three years, with a focus on areas near rail stations and transit hubs.
Under the governor’s plan, projects with affordable housing components that are denied a permit in municipalities that fall short of their growth targets could be eligible for state-backed “fast-track” approval.
Pastreich and other union leaders are generally supportive of the plan, but fear the “fasttrack” approach could remove incentives for developers to engage constructively with community stakeholders, especially labor unions.
The service workers union is pushing lawmakers to ensure that any projects that circumvent established local land use approval processes still require building workers employed on the site receive no less than the relevant prevailing wage and benefits.
The union also supports Hochul’s call for easing restrictions on converting commercial buildings to residential use in the city. However, it wants prevailing wage requirements to be tied to any tax incentive programs put in place to encourage such conversions.
The union, which represents thousands of doormen, porters, supers and maintenance workers, will launch a media blitz and mobilize members to call on lawmakers to cement protections in the final budget.
Other labor leaders previously called on the Legislature to work with Hochul on including such language.
Michael Hellstrom, vice president and eastern regional manager of the Laborers’ International Union of North America, applauded the governor’s proposal while calling for greater assurances for construction workers.
“If done right, the Housing Compact will not only build housing, it will also build longterm careers in the unionized construction industry and set workplace standards that will extend far beyond any one building program,” he said.
Similarly, the New York City District Council of Carpenters last month called for the housing plan to include labor protections.
The union noted that roughly a quarter of all New York construction workers have no health insurance and 41% of construction workers and their families rely on government assistance.
“We urge the governor and the Legislature to promote good jobs with family-sustaining wages, and to protect workers and tenants in their housing agenda,” Joseph Geiger, the executive secretary-treasurer of the United New York City & Vicinity District Council of Carpenters, said in a statement.