Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced a new Community Hiring
economic justice plan that includes a Project Labor Agreement obligating unions
to hire workers from low income neighborhoods and create more opportunities for
minorities and women.
He is also launching a campaign to push legislation in Albany
that will allow the city to use its own purchasing power to direct contractors
to hire low-income New Yorkers.
The Mayor says his plan would provide an estimated 1,300
construction jobs for every $1 billion in construction for low-income
communities leading to an estimated $1 billion in wages and benefits for target
communities during the first full year of the program.
“During the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, we’re taking action to connect low-income New Yorkers to good jobs and even better futures,” said Mayor de Blasio.
“We’ll use the City’s
purchasing power to address hiring disparities, expand opportunities and invest
in our communities of color. Working
together, we can build a fair and equitable future for all New Yorkers.”
First Lady Chirlane McCray said the COVID-19 crisis
highlighted a need to inequities in communities “deeply affected by structural
racism.”
She said, “Our administration’s Taskforce on Racial
Inclusion and Equity, which I co-chair, has taken actions that are already
bringing tangible relief to these communities. We feel the urgency of this
moment and praise this new collaboration. It is an important, necessary and
significant step to creating more pathways to training, employment and economic
opportunity.”
Hailing the agreement as an economic opportunity, Deputy
Mayor J. Phillip Thompson, said, “Now we need the State of New York to act by
passing Community Hiring legislation that would require contractors and
businesses working with the City to hire New Yorkers from high poverty
neighborhoods. Together with our partners in the State, we can show that City
dollars can do more than get work done, it can help lift people out of
poverty.”
The Project Labor Agreement was negotiated with the Building
and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York (BCTC) and covers
renovation construction work on City-owned buildings, as well as “selected
future projects.”
As part of the agreement Unions will prioritize the referral
of workers from zip codes where at least 15 percent of the population lives
below the federal poverty level and/or are NYCHA residents, aiming to reach an
overall goal that at least 30 percent of all hours worked under PLA projects
are logged by workers from these zip codes.
Unions will also provide contractors with apprentices on City construction projects up to the maximum number allowed by the New York State Department of Labor when contractors request apprentices. An apprenticeship Memorandum of Understanding establishes, for the first time, specific annual goals for the number of slots provided for both apprentices and pre-apprentices for residents of disadvantaged communities and NYCHA housing.
“This is a truly historic and transformative moment for our
city. Thanks to Mayor de Blasio’s leadership, New York City is committing its
resources to an unprecedented and unparalleled investment in job creation,
workforce development, and community hiring,” said Gary LaBarbera, President of
the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York.
“For years, New
York’s union building trades have prioritized expanding access, equity, and
opportunity in neighborhoods across the city. We look forward to building on
that commitment and working directly with the administration to ensure that all
New Yorkers — especially those in underserved communities — have access not
only to our exceptional union apprenticeship and direct-entry programs, but
also to the tens of thousands of middle-class careers that this agreement will
create. Only through investing in our city’s greatest asset, our working men
and women, will we fuel New York’s economic recovery.”
The Mayor is proposing Community Hiring Legislation in Albany that would establish an Office of
Community Hiring and Workforce Development which would co-ordinate employment
opportunities for low-income New Yorkers and prioritize NYCHA residents.
The legislation would also authorize the City to require a
minimum ratio of apprentices when performing work on procurement contracts to
expand the number of entry-level jobs as a result.
The current plan includes authorizing other city-affiliated
entities, including Health + Hospitals, NYCDOE, NYC SCA, NYC EDC, Build NYC,
and NYC IDA, to exercise the same policies.
“Today more than ever, the City needs to use its economic power to create good jobs for New Yorkers from our lowest income communities. Working with Gary LaBarbera and the building and construction trades unions we have shown how to put the City’s capital dollars to work both to build our City and to provide good jobs. Community Hiring State legislation will open the door to providing opportunities across all of the City’s spending – from technology to building services to healthcare,” said Amy A. Peterson, Director, Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development.
Carlo A. Scissura, Esq, President & CEO, New York
Building Congress, said, “The economic impacts of COVID-19 will be felt
citywide long after a vaccine is widely available, but steps like this
announcement of the new community hiring economic justice plan are exactly what
we need to ensure people can get back to work.
“The Building Congress is proud to be a partner in this
effort as the building industry is a leading economic driver in helping
low-income New Yorkers reach middle-class stability to support their families.
I applaud the Mayor and Building and Construction Trades Council and its
President Gary LaBarbera for coming to this agreement on the new PLAs. Today’s announcement will be felt immediately
by those who have been most heavily impacted financially by the pandemic,”
The effort is being supported by The Edward J. Malloy
Initiative for Construction Skills, Nontraditional Employment for Women,
Helmets to Hardhats, Pathways to Apprenticeship and SEIU 32BJ whos president,
Kyle Bragg said, “The city’s low-income communities, among the hardest hit by
COVID-19, need good jobs more than ever, and should benefit from the
opportunities created by our public spending.
“Through its contracts, New York City creates thousands of
family-sustaining building service jobs with good wages, affordable family
healthcare, and other important benefits. By making these jobs available to the
economically vulnerable New Yorkers who need them most, this bill is an
important step to improve economic equity in our city.”
Maritza Silva-Farrell, Executive Director at ALIGN, added, “The
Covid-19 pandemic not only revealed our city’s vulnerability in the face of a
crisis, but it also demonstrated how inaction around solving economic
disparities in our city could jeopardize our collective future. A plan to
ensure that low-income communities of color have access to career union jobs
during the current economic crisis is a step in the right direction.”
