A controversial new bill being floated in the City Council that would mandate apprenticeships through construction trade unions would cripple the growing amount of African-Americans and Hispanic on construction sites – particularly in Brooklyn, according to a survey released Friday.
The survey, conducted by The New York Construction Alliance (NYCA) found that nearly three-quarters of the City’s open shop construction workers are African-American or Hispanic. NYCA is an association of open shop construction managers and general contractors on a number of the region’s best known developments.
Open shop construction sites utilize both union and non-union construction sites.
The survey includes data gathered during the summer of 2016 from more than 1,500 workers on 27 different NYCA-member construction sites of various sizes across the city. The report specifically found that 52 percent of workers surveyed were Hispanic, 18 percent were African-American and three percent were Asian. With regard to residency, 33 percent of workers surveyed live in Queens, 26 percent live in Brooklyn, nine percent live in the Bronx and eight percent live in Manhattan.
“Racial diversity, local hiring and a commitment to safety are what drive open shop construction in New York City,” said NYCA Co Chairman Tom Nickel. “Open shop contractors are proud to provide tens of thousands of jobs to hardworking New Yorkers from all five boroughs each year. City officials should join us in celebrating these achievements, and they should not hurt minority communities with legislation to exclude open shop minority workers and eliminate good jobs across the city.”
The survey comes as the City Council considers The Construction Worker Safety Act, a package of 18 bills designed to stem the flow of construction deaths. Thirty construction death have occurred in the past 24 month, leaving union, nonunion and city officials all agreeing something needs to be done, but disagreeing over some of the measures that would better construction safety.
The most controversial of the package of bills is a measure that would require that legislation that would exclude many open shop construction contractors and workers by establishing a mandate on apprenticeships that are virtually all monopolized by building trade unions, which open shops sites and contractors say have very poor minority hiring records.
Brooklyn City Council Members Jumaane Williams (Flatbush, East Flatbush, Midwood) and Carlos Menchaca (Sunset Park, Red Hook) are among the prime sponsors of the bill that would mandate apprenticeships for construction projects over 10 stories tall. Since the apprenticeship requirement is a virtual union mandate, the legislation would exclude many of the open shop sector’s local, minority workers from new job opportunities.
The measure could also have an impact of minority-owned firms from local Brooklyn neighborhoods that tend to hire and train locally.
A Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York spokesperson called the survey questionable as NYCA represents open shop construction sites.
The spokesperson also repsonded with data from a recent Economic Policy Institute report that found black workers are far more represented in the union construction workforce (21.2 percent) than in the nonunion construction workforce (15.8 percent) and minorities overall now comprise 55.1 percent of NYC blue-collar construction workers (white workers are 44.9 percent).
“The NYCA internal ‘survey’ isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. NYCA has absolutely no influence anywhere in this state and should address the fact that they advocate for those who are responsible for the overwhelming majority of fatalities and accidents on construction sites in New York. Facts still do matter and the EPI report, which is based on public record, indicates that New York’s unionized construction sector is increasingly diverse and will continue on this trajectory,” the spokesperson said.
The Economic Policy Institute bills itself as a non-partisan think tank, although 27% of its funding comes from unions. The institute also noted that their report was commissioned by the New York City Building Trades Council.
