Labor




October 15, 2008

Brooklyn to Manhattan: Dukes Up for Jobs

brooklyn-sign-1008.jpgThat's right, the Borough of Kings is willing to go toe to toe with Manhattan for jobs, reports the NY Post, the same day that the NY Times reports the city is gearing up for a 165,000 job loss. "Taking advantage of the slumping economy, the public-private Downtown Brooklyn Partnership plans to kick off an aggressive marketing campaign early next year to attract Manhattan and New Jersey businesses to the cheaper rents in Brooklyn's business district," they write. No word on specifics of the campaign, though Marty Markowitz did offer some suggestions concerning the "Brooklyn Renaissance." Not everyone thinks we should be poaching business from Manhattan, though. Congressmen Alan Gerson told the paper: "Brooklyn and Manhattan should be working together to come up with common marketing strategies to keep businesses in New York rather than trying to steal from one another."
Brooklyn Is Going Fishing [NY Post]
Photo by lookwithyoureyes.

Posted by lisa at 9:04 AM | Comments (8)
Categories: Labor

July 10, 2008

Do Union Demands Stymie Affordable Housing?

union-rat-07-2008.jpgA right-wing think tank has issued a big report that, according to the Sun, says affordable housing construction would be sped up by the use of nonunion labor. The Manhattan Institute is—not surprisingly—arguing that soaring construction costs are slowing development, and a big part of that slowdown is caused by unions that demand a prevailing wage for their workers. Also not surprisingly, not everyone agrees with the report's findings. "This is a valid area of investigation, but I would not support this recommendation," says Richard Anderson, the president of the New York Building Congress. And Louis Colletti, president of the Building Trades Employers' Association, said the recommendation was "absurd" and the use of nonunion labor results in "substandard housing in terms of quality and safety." Of course, some affordable housing developers in Brooklyn, like the Fifth Avenue Committee, acknowledge that it's very difficult for them to use union labor because of its higher costs, and the rapidly rising Toren is basically a textbook example of how quickly you can build when you leave unions behind. (The skyscraper has 42 affordable units.) Where do you stand on the issue?
Report Urges Nonunion Labor Use [NY Sun]
Photo by arecee.

Posted by Gabby at 9:30 AM | Comments (77)
Categories: Affordable Housing, Labor

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