Dear Union Brothers and Sisters of the Building Construction Industry;
We invite you to participate in the process of organizing a rally to demonstrate against the Building Trades Employers’ Association, on Tuesday, May 24th, 2011, at Cipriani Wall Street:
BTEA Rally Organizational Meeting
Time: Tuesday, May 17 - 4:00pm - 6:00pm
Location: New Valentino Market
(Dining room in back, up stairway)
74 5th Ave # 1 (between 14th and 13th Street)
(All rank and file construction workers and stewards welcome; no bosses or union officials, please!)
Also on the agenda:
BTEA Board of Governors Meeting
Thursday, May19th, 2011, 8:00am
Le Parker Meridien
118 West 57th Street
(Between 6th & 7th)
Rank-and-File Organized Rally to Protest the BTEA
Time: Tuesday, May 24 - 5:00pm - 8:00pm
Location: BTEA Leadership Dinner, Cipriani Wall Street
55 Wall Street (Between William St. and Hanover St.)
(Listed below are selected citations for reference, and a brief organizational concept.)
Building Trades Employers' Association Leadership Dinner
BTEA Leadership Dinner
(Event announcement and picture of ballroom.)
2011 Alfred G. Gerosa Leadership Dinner Brochure
2011 Press Releases
“Construction Industry Celebrates Resurgence of WTC by Honoring Larry Silverstein” March 18th, 2011
"…The Leadership Awards are presented each year to accomplished individuals that have proven themselves as exemplary leaders and mentors that embody the vision, dedication, and fortitude to continuously shape the city's skyline.
Last year's dinner drew hundreds of attendees from all facets of New York City's business and political circles."
The Building Trades Employers' Association
BTEA Collective Bargaining Agreement Schedule
Agreements To Be Negotiated In 2011
(Among the NYC building trades there at least 26 contacts expiring between April 30th and September 30th, of 2011.)
BTEA News
Winter 2011
Page 4.
A Frame Work For Reducing Union Construction Costs
(A list of 26 demands.)
Crain's New York Business
March 27, 2011
“Honeymoon in construction industry ends with a bang: Unions, Contractors trade barbs as negotiations loom, job numbers drop”
By Theresa Agovino
"A short honeymoon between unionized construction workers and the contractors who hire them has collapsed into tensions that are at their highest level in years... Such rancor contrasts sharply with the good will shown during the recession, when the sides worked together to reduce costs in an attempt to spur building. In 2009, they collaborated to implement changes that they then calculated cut costs by about 15%. To achieve that, unions altered work rules, and management shaved profit margins. Last year, Engineering News-Record, a trade magazine, recognized the parties for their unique partnership."
NY Daily News
Monday, April 18th, 2011
“Relationship between city's construction unions, contractors getting ugly”
By Brian Kates
"Formal contract talks don't begin for most trades until May, but contractors have taken up arms, launching subway ads and a website exhorting union workers to "face the facts."
In one video, Building Trades Employers' Association President Louis Coletti urges union workers to "embrace difficult changes that are needed."
The group, which represents contractors in the 28 trade associations that negotiate with unions, bolsters the message with pictures of more than a dozen big construction projects that recently went to nonunion labor.
A subway ad that ended last week featured posters depicting a hardhat and his family with the words, "Today 30% of union construction workers are unemployed."
The website claims union work costs 25% more than nonunion and if union workers don't want their jobs to go to "the enemy," the BTEA says, labor costs must drop...
Gary LaBarbera, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council, an alliance of 15 unions, called the pre-negotiation tactic "a real breach of trust" and "an attempt to circumvent collective bargaining."
At the same time, unions are aware that the old team spirit between management and worker evaporated when the housing market collapsed.
Bobby Bonanza, business manager of the Mason Tenders District Council, said the economy "went sour and along with it the relationship with the contractors got sour."
Bonanza insists his members "have made plenty of concessions." In recent years, he said, unions agreed to work rules that reduce nonproductive downtime, including staggered starting times and standardized holidays.
Outside Manhattan, he noted, most unions routinely grant so-called project labor agreements that cut costs by 20%.
There's only so much the rank and file can sacrifice, Bonanza said. "They're looking for 20%-25% reduction in hourly costs, and I don't believe that is going to happen," he said."
In These Times
Friday, Apr 29, 2011
“Anti-Union Forces Try to Knock Out New York City's Hard Hats”
Michelle Chen
"Historically, the building trades unions have been known as shrewd political players and a formidable counterweight to developers and the city’s bureaucracy. But now, a civic organization and the real estate industry have teamed up to try to dismantle the construction unions' political clout. The Regional Plan Association has issued an extensive report... which argues that the pending expiration of 30 city union construction contracts provides an opportunity to roll a little disaster capitalism down 5th Avenue.
...The contract hooplah, which pits the unions against the Building Trades Employer Association (BTEA), is hardly a throwback to the labor showdowns of New York legend (transit, longshoremen, newspapers and police, to name a few notable postwar industrial actions). Rather, the rising tensions, which echo previous collective-bargaining crises suggest that once-solid unions like the construction workers are losing their leverage.
...The BTEA has set up a slick campaign to pressure union members to capitulate to employer demands. Ironically, the campaign’s website extols the value of union workers, but claims that is precisely why workers should roll with the punches and demand less from employers--since, as the BTEA passive-aggressively phrases it, “the world has changed”..."
May 1, 2011
“Construction Labor Costs in New York City: A Moment of Opportunity”
Regional Plan Association
"Today Regional Plan Association issued a report analyzing the structure and costs of unionized construction in New York. Open shops (union and nonunion) have grown from just 15 percent of the market in the 1970s to about 40 percent now--and are 20-30 percent less expensive than union shops. The report, researched and written by Julia Vitullo-Martin and Hope Cohen of RPA's Center for Urban Innovation, recommends elimination of wasteful work rules and practices that add more than 20 percent to the cost of union labor. The report finds that a 10 percent differential between union and nonunion construction is tolerable to union developers and contractors, while the existing 20-30" percent differential is not."
New York Times
April 24th, 2011
“Civic Group Says That Concessions Are Need From Construction Unions”
Charles V. Bagli
"The Building Trades Employers’ Association, a group that represents contractors, has paid for subway advertisements and a Web site directly appealing to union members to agree to concessions, angering union leadership in the process.
...The construction unions dismissed the report, saying its authors were antagonistic to labor unions. They were referring to Julia Vitullo-Martin and Hope Cohen, former associates of the conservative Manhattan Institute who now work at the Regional Plan Association and prepared the report.
“So individuals with longstanding right-wing, anti-worker associations and views want to blame labor for our economic problems,” said Paul Fernandes, a spokesman for Gary LaBarbera, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council, a union umbrella group.
“This draft report is rife with factual errors and omissions that reveal its underlying ideology,” he added."
Wikipedia
The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research
Funding sources
"The Manhattan Institute received $19,470,416 in grants from 1985–2005, from foundations such as the Koch Family Foundations..."
Manhattan Institute
Unions
"The #1 Resource for Public Sector Union Issues: The Manhattan Institute's experts have been shining a spotlight on public-sector union issues for years. From Steven Malanga's prescient warning of America's emerging new political reality to Wisconsin's public union showdown, our experts have been at the forefront of the discussion."
Cipriani
(The Cipriani's have a reputation of organized crime ties, union busting, and tax evasion.)
Cipriani Wall Street
"Cipriani Wall Street stands as a triumph of Greek revival architecture, as well as a grand and luxurious venue for events... Framed by monolithic columns, Cipriani Wall Street features a 70-foot ceiling with a Wedgwood dome. Impeccable attention to detail, the finest cuisine and classic service sets the stage for the most sought after social experiences."
Wikipedia
Cipriani S.A.
"Cipriani S.A. is a privately owned international corporation based in Luxembourg that owns and operates luxury restaurants and clubs around the world including Harry's Bar in Venice and the Rainbow Room in New York City."
Fortune Magazine
March 2, 2007
“Scandal shakes up the Cipriani Empire”
By John Brodie
"...In 2003 a Gambino family soldier named Michael DiLeonardo (a.k.a. Mickey Scars) pleaded guilty to murder and agreed to become a witness against his former associates.
In the course of his testimony, Mickey Scars served up a primer on labor relations New York-style when he claimed that Cipriani had paid the Gambino family $120,000 to make union problems at the Rainbow Room disappear. Or as Scars told the court, "In the spring of 1998 he was having some union problems with the Rainbow Room. He wanted to go non-union there in the restaurant." Scars said he took the money but was unable to do anything about the union situation..."
New York Times
February 5, 2005
“On the Waterfront, Dueling Developers”
By CHARLES V. BAGLI
"...The board received letters describing the Dec. 8 testimony of Michael DiLeonardo in the racketeering trial of Peter Gotti, the head of the Gambino crime family. At one point, Mr. DiLeonardo, a Mafia turncoat, testified that he had met Mr. Cipriani through Mickey Rourke, the actor. He said that in the spring of 1998, Mr. Cipriani "wanted to know if we could help keep the unions off his back."
According to a transcript of the testimony, Mr. DiLeonardo said he had Mr. Cipriani funnel $120,000 through Francis Leahy, a contractor known as Buddy who was doing work for Mr. Cipriani, in return for helping him with his labor problem.
Mr. Cipriani, in an interview last week, dismissed the testimony as nonsense. He said he knew Mr. Leahy, a contractor who did work for him at three banquet halls. "It's true we gave him a lot of money," he said, "but it was for construction."
The hotel and restaurant workers union did wage a bitter eight-month campaign against Mr. Cipriani in 1999, after he took over the Rainbow Room and fired hundreds of union workers. Peter Ward, the current union president, said the union stopped its picketing only because Mr. Cipriani gave in and agreed to rehire the workers and sign a union contract."
New York Times
August 1, 2007
“Father and Son Restaurateurs in New York City Plead Guilty to Tax Evasion”
By GRETCHEN MORGENSON and CHARLES V. BAGLI
"Two members of the Cipriani family, renowned for its string of opulent restaurants in New York and Venice, pleaded guilty to tax evasion yesterday and agreed to pay $10 million in restitution and penalties to resolve a case brought by Robert M. Morgenthau, the district attorney of Manhattan..."
55 Wall Street
Google Maps
"cipriani club 55 wall street"
Wikipedia
55 Wall Street
"It was originally the Merchants Exchange, a Greek Revival building built between 1836 and 1841. Between 1862 and around 1907, the U.S. Customs Service used the building before moving into the U.S. Customhouse on Bowling Green. In 1907, the National City Bank hired Charles F. McKim to increase the building to 7 floors and redesign the interior. The National City Bank (now Citibank) was closely tied to the Wall Street Crash of 1929."
“55 Wall Street: A History”
By John Piper
"...if the building was symbolic of the burgeoning economy of the 1830's, in harder times it became a symbol of another sort. During the panic of 1857, for instance, the structure became an object of derision for many, at one point, thousands of demonstrators marched upon the Merchants Exchange, chanting "We want work!," while they demanded that the bankers lend funds to businesses to provide employment for the poor."
skyscraper.org
The Rise of Wall Street
The Slave Market
"In the early 18th century, slavery was an important source of New York City's labor force, 40 percent of white households owning slaves. Continued trade with the West Indies and Britain ensured a growing population of slaves, who were often bought by ship workers. Slaves would be sent into the street to find day work, which began to spur anxieties among the upper classes. In 1711, a slave market was established at the foot of Wall Street."
The Event
The gala starts at 6pm with a cocktail reception, continues from 7 to 8:30, featuring a $750 dollar a plate dinner (and awards program honoring Larry A. Silverstein,) then concludes 8:30 to 9:30PM with a dessert reception.
We are organizing a rally/demonstration, and press conference, across the street at approximately the same time as the BTEA event.
The concept is thus far: the BTEA represents the big bosses of the NYC building industry, and the Building & Construction Trades Council (AFL-CIO) "represents the interests of the unionized construction industry;" both neither directly represent the interests of the workers, so our rally is being organized by the rank-and-file, for the rank-and-file.
This is a prime opportunity for us to practice solidarity across craft lines, in response to United Brotherhood of Carpenters President Douglas J. McCarron's union raiding, addressing the anti-worker agenda of Louis J. Coletti's BTEA, as a do-it-yourself organizational alternative to the bureaucratic approach of Gary LaBarbera' BCTC.
The Wall-Ceiling & Carpentry Industries of New York is a Member of the BTEA. Last year its director, Joseph Olivieri, was found to have been involved in extorting the Carpenters Union, while tied to labor racketeer Vincent DiNapoli, and was convicted of perjury. Every rank-and-file construction worker is forced to answer for corrupt bosses, this is our opportunity to tell them how we feel about the company they keep!
Huffington Post
August 23, 2010
“Feds: Construction Bigwig a Longtime Labor Racketeer”
By Jerry Capeci
"Even if you've never heard of Joseph Olivieri, after a quick glance, you get the idea that he's a pretty important guy in the construction industry. He's the executive director of the city's largest organization of contractors, the Association of Wall Ceiling & Carpentry Industries, which is more than 200 strong. He's also the lead columnist for the WC&C house organ, Off The Wall.
But when you look below the surface, according to the feds, Olivieri is even more powerful than he seems at first blush. And, they say, he has quietly wielded that clout since the 1990s, working for himself, the powerful Genovese crime family and corrupt union leaders who represent 20,000 carpenters in 11 different locals."
Our Mission:
- Democratic process
- Members’ rights
- Worker solidarity
- Municipal service divorced from partisan politics.
- We recognize that the interests of labor are identical regardless of occupation, sex, nationality, religion, or ethnicity, for a wrong done to one is a wrong done to all.
In Closing
Ideas for organizing this rally are greatly appreciated, and required as soon as possible; the date is swiftly approaching! Please let us know if you need info, want to participate, or can recommend any NYC rank-and-file building trade workers who might be interested in attending this event.
Contact us by phone: 646-321-3274
Email: rally524@yahoo.com
Visit: http://cwrfo.blogspot.com/
P.S. There are BTEA meetings scheduled before and after the Leadership Dinner:
BTEA Association Executives
Tuesday, June 7th, 2011, 8:00am
BTEA Conference Room
1430 Broadway, Suite 1106
@40th St
BTEA Golf Outing
Monday, June 20th, 2011, All Day!
Alpine Country Club
80 Anderson Ave.
Demerest, NJ
BTEA Executive Committee
Thursday, June 23, 2011, 8:00am
BTEA Conference Room
1430 Broadway, Suite 1106
@40th St
(22 NYC building trade union contracts expire
Thursday, June 30th, 2011.)
