Editor’s Note: The following is an extended version of the story that appears in our latest print edition.

When New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced on Thursday, Nov. 21, that two Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) had been secured with the New York City Building & Construction Trades Council (BCTC) for various major City development projects, the news garnered positive feedback from Sandra Lobo, executive director of the Northwest Bronx Communty & Clergy Coalition  (NWBCCC). Lobo is a co-chair of the “Together for Kingsbridge” visioning process and coalition behind the redevelopment of the City-owned long-vacant Kingsbridge Armory, located at West Kingsbridge Road and Jerome Avenue in Kingsbridge Heights.

 

In 2013, as part of the redevelopment discussions of the Armory, NWBCCC had worked tirelessly to broker a historic, first-of-its-kind, community benefits agreement (CBA) with the developer for the then-planned and now abandoned Kingsbridge National Ice Center (KNIC) project.

 

Following the latest, extensive Request for Proposal (RFP) bidding process which started up, once again, in September 2023 after the KNIC project fell through at the end of the DeBlasio administration, during the Bronx Community Board 7 (CB7) land use meeting in March of this year, an NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC) representative said that the eagerly anticipated chosen project and developer for the Armory would be announced before year-end.

 

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Adams said the PLAs ensure union jobs are guaranteed on major City development projects. Lobo noted that during the mayor’s press conference remarks, it was noted that the Kingsbridge Armory was one such City project which was subject to a PLA. She said this was thanks to the advocacy of NWBCCC, which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, and other community stakeholders who were part of the “Together for Kingsbridge” negotiations in recent years.

 

“Creating and sustaining good jobs is a fundamental principle of the City’s vision to redevelop the Kingsbridge Armory, and it starts on Day One of construction,” Lobo said. “For the Armory to truly live up to its potential as a once-in-a-generation economic engine for The Bronx, the project must commit to paying those who build, grow, and work within it a living wage from the very beginning.”

 

In fact, Adams announced that in addition to two secured PLAs, the EDC had also signed a letter of intent with BCTC, to negotiate in good faith additional PLAs for the Hunts Point Produce Market, the Kingsbridge Armory, and the Science Park and Research Campus (SPARC) Kips Bay projects, amounting to a cumulative $1.88 billion in construction work.

 

The major was joined for the PLA announcement by BCTC President Gary LaBarbera, Andrew Kimball, president and CEO of NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC), First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres Springer, Commissioner Thomas Foley of NYC Department of Design and Construction (DDC), among others. Of LaBarbera, the mayor said in part, “He believes in unions, and he believes in ensuring that the people who built this City can afford to work and live in this City.”

 

Adams said LaBarbera understood the mayor’s wish to diversify the workforce, making sure it reflects the people of the City, and that LaBarbera was pushing for that. “A blue-collar mayor…this is a blue-collar city,” Adams continued, adding that construction [and other] workers weren’t asking for handouts. “They are asking to give the right salaries and benefits that they deserve for their families. You can’t build luxury high-rises and affordable housing, when the men and women who are putting the shovel in the ground cannot participate in that success,” he said.

Adams said the negotiated PLAs will connect New Yorkers to good-paying local jobs and career opportunities and promote and protect local economic growth. “That is why we are hiring from our communities and hiring union workers, and that is why these agreements also have ambitious M/WBE (minority and women-owned business enterprise) goals, because our minority / women-owned firms have been passed by for these projects for decades.”

 

He said the agreements also mean the City will be “able to build and complete projects faster and more efficiently by reducing bureaucracy, cutting red tape, and minimizing delays.” He added in part, “As a mayor, probably one of the few mayors, not the only, that had a union card, I know what today means to all of us.”

 

For his part, LaBarbera said in part, “PLAs make projects more efficient. They actually save money to the capital plan and the capital budget, which creates more opportunity. We also have historic provisions in PLAs to reach into underserved communities and bring people into the building trades through our pre-apprentice and direct entry programs and our recruitment programs.”

 

LaBarbera added in part, “This is not just a construction job. It is a pathway into the middle class. This is just the beginning. We are doing things that have never been done before with the mayor’s leadership in terms of these PLAs, the horizontal PLA never existed before the Adams administration.”

 

LaBarbera acknowledged there had been a sense before that the M/WBE community and the unions could not work together but that this was no longer the case. “We can exactly accomplish workforce development, creating good union jobs and pathways into the middle class, and also supporting M/WBEs to come into this work and hopefully eventually through a mentorship program become good union contractors,” he said.

 

Torres-Springer confirmed that the PLAs will incorporate DDC’s “Design-Build” concept, which allows the department to complete public projects faster and more efficiently by entering into a combined design and construction contract. According to DDC, Design-Build emphasizes collaboration, efficiency, and risk reduction.

 

Meanwhile, LaBarbera said the PLAs bring the cost of the project down and avoid the need to negotiate with individual unions. “It’s an agreement that’s signed by the affiliates of all the building trades in the City of New York,” he said. In response to a question on the estimated savings from the use of PLAs, LaBarbera said in part, “A $4 billion city PLA, the feasibility study demonstrated it’s worth $347 million worth of savings; that’s a fact.”

Adams added that NYCHA projects fell under the scope of the latest citywide $5 billion-dollar revised housing plan, tentatively agreed with the City Council last week. It followed a prior zoning-related impasse linked to DCP’s “City of Yes” zoning plan. It is understood that PLAs will also be negotiated for various NYCHA projects across the City.

 

For a previous story in 2021 on safety and fairness within the construction industry in The Bronx, Norwood News spoke to a Bronx union representative who alleged at the time that some developers hire and pay untrained laborers as low as $15 an hour without any healthcare or benefits, despite the dangerous nature of the work.

 

When at least one company we spoke to denied this, saying it complied with all applicable laws and safety regulations, the union rep alleged some developers circumvent the regulations by using subcontractors (which, presumably, are not bound by any contracts/regulations) to hire cheaper, untrained workers.

 

Norwood News has asked the City to confirm if the developers hired for City projects under these newly agreed PLAs, and specifically the Kingsbridge Armory project, will be held to account in this regard, and that any sub-contractors hired by these developers will be made subject to all applicable laws, regulations and agreements, including the terms of these PLAs. We will share any updates we receive.

 

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issues OSHA cards to construction workers usually following 10-hour or 30-hour safety courses. “Unfortunately, there has been an increase in fraudulent activity related to these courses over the past several years,” an extract from OSHA’s website reads. This was backed up by at least one construction worker we spoke to in the last year or so who alleged fake OSHA cards were being sold regularly on the black-market in New York City.

 

Norwood News reported in April that NYC Department of Small Businesses Services (SBS) was urging more than 17,000 active, construction workers to apply to SBS’s no-cost training program after their site safety training (SST) cards issued by Valor Consulting were deactivated following the revocation of the company’s status as a city-approved, safety training course provider.

 

In the meantime, as reported, the results of the investigation by City officials into the partial building collapse that occurred at 1915 Billingsley Terrace in Morris Heights in December 2023 were released this week.

 

We were informed by City officials that the engineer was disciplined because the plans he drew up caused the building to collapse. The contractor was also disciplined, because he was responsible for the work at the site, and we were informed that he should have looked at the engineer’s plans and quickly realized that they were potentially unsafe. Both the engineer and the contractor were deemed responsible for the collapse.

 

We were further informed that the building owners were not disciplined, because in this case, they did the right thing by hiring construction professionals to make façade repairs to their building. We were further informed that unfortunately, the construction professionals they hired failed them.

 

Norwood News reached out to the City regarding allegations made in the last year or so by at least one construction worker we spoke to that certain developers allegedly circumvent training and safety regulations in the building sector through the use of subcontractors who, in turn, allegedly hire unskilled, non-union workers on building sites. We will share any updates we receive.

As reported, a fire broke out in the historic Kingsbridge Armory on West Kingsbridge Road and Jerome Avenue in Kingsbridge Heights on Saturday April 20.

 

Meanwhile, Lobo is optimistic about the PLA news as it pertains to the Armory, saying, “We are proud to have advocated for this Project Labor Agreement in the Request for Proposals and congratulate the building trades for landing these agreements on other key projects across the city. This is a promising first step toward the hundreds of good, union jobs we expect to grow out of the Armory project.”

 

Click here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here for some related construction safety-related coverage.