NEW YORK CITY—Earlier this week, Related Co.'s $25 billion Hudson Yards project filed a lawsuit against the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, accusing the labor organization of engaging in corrupt practices. The complaint alleges that the union organization violated the project labor agreement causing the Related unit, Hudson Yards Construction, to pay more than $100,000,000 in additional wages, benefits and insurance for work that was not performed.
The company claims the union workers have driven up bids on the project due to their “unwillingness to supply the highest quality labor willing to put in an honest day's work for an honest day's pay.”
The complaint cites the example of a union employee logging 12 hours per day, seven days a week for an entire year, resulting in annual wages and benefits in excess of $600,000. It alleges that due to the difference between hours actually worked and hours paid, Hudson Yards Construction paid contractors in excess of $25 million for work that was not performed.
The complaint also references another “prime example” of the “union 'Coffee Boy.'” It states as a matter of practice and internal procedure, trades working at Hudson Yards, other than the concrete workers, designate the junior-most worker within a work unit to get coffee for the team and bring it to the work station.
It alleges the Concrete Workers Council designated two full-time employees whose sole duty on their respective shifts is to obtain and deliver coffee and other snacks, for which they charge other employees. The complaint says the Concrete Union Council gave these positions to highly compensated journeyman tradesmen who earn $42.48 per hour in base wages and $27.39 per hour in benefit contributions. It also claims one of the two “Coffee Boys” is the 55-year-old brother of a high-ranking union official.
In addition, the plaintiffs allege the labor organization violated the project labor agreement by failing to uphold agreed upon safety standards, failing to provide workers pursuant to agreed-upon ratios of apprentices to experienced workers, failing to provide agree-upon discounted rates and coordinating campaigns of protests, rallies and defamatory hand-bills.
The management company says it has no choice but to decide a new project labor agreement should not be entered into for the remaining portions of Hudson Yards. Instead Hudson Yards Construction has tried to enter into separate agreements with specific unions for the 50 Hudson Yards construction. It accuses the defendants of attempting to prevent the management unit from entering into any agreements with any union, unless it agrees to work with every union.
A spokesperson for the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York provided the following response to GlobeSt.com:
“This lawsuit is clearly retaliation for a movement that has built up in this city called #CountMeIn, where rank and file members oppose open-shop and non-union construction because it undermines their wages and benefits, which Hudson Yards Construction LLC and Related have acknowledged is their business model for their upcoming projects. We are confident that any Court looking at this matter will see it for what it is – an effort to suppress this movement and an attempt to suppress the free speech of hardworking New Yorkers.”
A person close to situation calls the allegations in the complaint “bizarre” and tells GlobeSt.com that over the past six years neither Related nor Hudson Yards Construction processed any grievances under the project labor agreement even remotely suggestive of overpaid “Coffee Boys,” “no-show” jobs or “unsafe workers.” In addition, the complaint is not filed against these contractors but instead the labor organization and its president.
The law firms which filed the case for Hudson Yards, Wachtel Missry and Covington & Burling, did not respond to GlobeSt.com by the filing of this article.
The defendants plan to file a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.
Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
*May exclude premium content© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Betsy Kim
Betsy Kim was the bureau chief, East Coast, and New York City reporter for Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com. As a lawyer and journalist, Betsy has worked as the director of editorial and content for LexisNexis Lawyers.com, a TV/multi-media journalist for NBC and CBS affiliated TV stations in the Midwest, and an associate producer at Court TV.
