NYC District Council of Carpenters Representative Michael Piccirello chants with the crowd of union carpenters.
Photo by John Schilling
It was a sea of orange outside City Hall in Lower Manhattan on Thursday, July 13 as union carpenters and elected leaders gathered together to call out the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC) for breaking their promise to employ union workers in the construction of Willets Point.
For the project, first announced decades ago, the EDC hired East Coast Drilling to oversee construction. Now, union carpenters are calling out the EDC for allowing contractors to employ non-union workers for the construction at Willets Point and not requiring workers to undergo a state-certified apprenticeship program to ensure the project’s buildings are built safely by “skilled labor.”
“New York City is a union town,” NYC District Council of Carpenters Representative Michael Piccirello chanted with the crowd. “If we don’t get it, shut it down.”
“We’re not going to make them go and build a huge project without us,” added NYC District Council of Carpenters Representative Phillip Fiorentino. “We’re here, and we’re not f**king leaving…We’re not going nowhere.”
With chants that included “Shame on EDC” and “Carpenters rise,” the carpenters held up signs, one of which displayed an excerpt from page 66 of the EDC’s Willets Point Development Phase 1 Request For Proposal.
“During the construction phase of the project, Purchaser shall employ contractors that pay prevailing wage, and shall hire workers from state-certified apprenticeship programs for the construction of all non-residential buildings in the Project,” the excerpt read.
NYC and Vicinity District Council of Carpenters Executive Secretary-Treasurer Joseph Geiger called the EDC “a sham” and expressed frustration over their decision to go against this promise and without any explanation.
“There’s been no action, no answers,…
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