Do Union Demands Stymie Affordable Housing?
A 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…
A 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.
A friend who works for the union finished a task early and started a new task. His boss called him into the office and yelled at him for doing additional work. He said that if he finishes a job early he is to stand in the corner with his hand on his hip and a coffee cup in his hand until they give him more work to do.
My friend said that out of a typical 8 hour day he actually does about 2 hours of work.
Anyone who thinks the unions deserve the blame for everything obviously know very little about city government. Waste starts at the top- and an unwieldy bureacracy creates the most waste. Let’s not blame unions for soaring health care costs when those cost rise all across the board.
I’m no huge fan of unions- lord knows I hate the transit union with their illegal strikes- but having personally seen the ineptitude, and illegal construction done by non-union people, only a fool would use them. You get what you pay for. Don’t blame the average union worker for the problems created by management, and the City. The city pushes new construction and development without proper oversight. It’s the union worker who gets killed when a damaged crane crashes down.
Policies aren’t made by the average union worker but by government and management. And that includes union management too. Get pissed off at them.
Want to complain about the teachers union? How about pointing a finger at the board of ed that gives them too little in resources and help? I know teachers who had to use a stairwell and buy their own supplies so their students could have stuff. they get to go into classrooms unprotected, with little help and back up. their workday doesn’t end at 3- as so many people seem to think. They take home work and do it on the weekends too.
The mere fact that the Manhattan Institute member at 10:42 says, “unless of course you are a Marxist which it appears many readers/writers of this blog are” in reaction to perfectly reasoned arguments in favor of unions shows how the organization is so far beyond “right wing” that its members would probably feel more at home in Guatemala than America.
Yes, 10:43 and the Japanese railroads are unionized too and provide impeccible and highly profitable (they are listed on the stock market) returns to shareholders…just like FedEx, DHL, etc. It’s the fact that management in those organizations (here in the US) share the profits with the employess (unionized) and the employees have a sense of ownership. The makeup of the unions in those organizations was not based on an existing adversarial management/labor situation. They ARE different.
Daveinbedstuy if unions are always to blame for problems with the MTA, Amtrak and the Post Office, how can other organizations with extremely powerful unions in those industries provide such good service. Ever heard of UPS, DHL? How about the European rail companies (yes I know they don’t operate at a profit, but that’s because those countries realize that public transportation should not be operated as a for-profit enterprise.)
As a member of the Mahattan Institute I’d like to clarify what the institute does as I would not consider it “right-wing” (unless of course you are a Marxist which it appears many readers/writers of this blog are)
The Mission of the Manhattan Institute is
to develop and disseminate new ideas that
foster greater economic choice and
individual responsibility. — They look at market-oriented solutions to public policy issues rather than just saying the government needs to hand out a bunch of money to solve things. They were instrumental in the 1996 welfare reform bill that Bill Clinton signed.
Getting back to the topic at hand, of course labor unions had an important place in our history to make working conditions better, but today the only thing labor unions are good for are the union bosses. To think otherwise is ignorant of basic economics and commonly know facts.
10:36 big difference between union labor for construction labor and licensed trades. Licensed trades are used on these non union projects. That doesn’t mean all of their “helpers” are licensed though.
Typical right wing drivel – from the people that brought you “Cutting taxes raises tax revenue.”
Unions aren’t the problem here. Currently, affordable housing is not being funded because of the Ratner Effect. Almost all of the funds allocated to affordable housing in New York have been pledged to AY.
As we all now know, the affordable housing that was supposed to be part of every one of the four stages of the development has now all been moved to the mythical fourth stage, which hasn’t even been scheduled by Ratner – although the funding currently remains in place. Because of the massive scale of the development (and in my opinion, the massive scale of the associated fraud) Ratner’s essentially blocking others from getting financing to build affordable housing.
Note, this has nothing to do with the legal delays. This was simply a means to secure funding by dubious means via bought politicians and a public that didn’t pay attention.
The good news – the times they are a changin’.
I think city requirement that we use licensed
tradespeople drives up cost of affordable housing. Too many gov’t regs. Why should I have to used licensed plumbers, electricians etc when I can get illegal immigrants…Think how much could save and get more affordable housing.