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Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park infographics: what's built/what's coming/what's missing, who's responsible, + project FAQ/timeline (pinned post)

Will new agreement between city and construction unions help low-income workers?

City, construction unions strike deal to hire low-income workers, The Real Deal's Kathryn Brenzel reported yesterday, citing a (for now) under wraps "project labor agreement with the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York that guarantees unions will 'prioritize referral' of workers who live in areas where 15 percent of the population lives below the federal poverty level or are residents of public housing."

So that could mean up to 26,000 construction jobs on city owned properties as well as "selected future projects," and help further integrate construction unions, some of which are long clannish. 

But the devil will be in the details, including questions of enforcement and even whether the qualifications can be gamed. After all, hiring of minority and women workers in projects like Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park has been treated as a goal, not a guarantee. 

That's in both the non-governmental Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) signed by the developer and community groups and also in documents from Empire State Development, the state authority overseeing/shepherding the project.

The general point, however, is that government recognizes that it has a role to play. If that had been front and center, and effective, in 2003-06, the ballyhoo of the CBA wouldn't have been as effective. (Most notably, the purported pipeline to union careers, a much promoted Pre-Apprenticeship Training Program, ended in a bitter lawsuit.)

That said, even when there's a governmental role, guidelines must be enforceable.

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