Gov. David A. Paterson has issued an order making it easier for labor unions to organize thousands of workers at some of New York’s largest new hotel and convention center projects, including hotels in Niagara Falls and at the Belmont Park racetrack in Nassau County and the expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan.þþThe directive, which was signed on April 24 and issued on Friday, will require the operators of projects that receive assistance like loans, tax breaks or property leases from state agencies or public authorities to obtain “labor peace” agreements with unions seeking to organize their workers. þþUnder the agreements, workers would pledge not to strike, boycott or engage in other actions that would disrupt business or deprive the state of revenues. þþThe directive will give unions unprecedented leverage to demand right-to-organize provisions — including “card-check” rights that allow a union to be recognized as soon as a majority of workers sign authorization cards — for the roughly 2,000 workers expected to be hired at various facilities around the state once they are completed.þþAdministration officials said the order would benefit taxpayers by preventing interruptions to the revenue from projects built with state assistance.þþ“Labor peace agreements have proven an effective means of ensuring that the state’s interest in successful project development is not undermined by labor strife,” said Peter E. Kauffmann, a spokesman for Mr. Paterson. “When taxpayers provide assistance to a project, we must do all that we can to protect their interests, particularly in these troubled fiscal times. This directive will provide transparency to some of the largest economic development projects the state undertakes and assures New Yorkers that those projects will be managed in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible.” þþLabor experts said that it was the first time a governor had issued such a directive, and that it could portend a broader shift in strategy by labor unions if initiatives at the national level like federal card-check legislation falter in Washington.þþ“It is the scaling up to the statewide level of a strategy that has been mostly used at the local level or on a project-by-project basis,” said Paul K. Sonn, a legal director at the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy organization. “I think it is something we will be seeing more of.”þþThe new rule signifies a major victory for Unite HERE, the hotel and restaurant workers union, which has been pressing Mr. Paterson and his predecessor, Eliot Spitzer, to issue the directive for more than a year. The move also gives Mr. Paterson, who is struggling to shore up his political base and improve his poll numbers, a chit with unions that have been close to Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, his most likely rival in a Democratic primary.þþ“What the governor is basically saying with this order is if the state has a proprietary interest in a hospitality project, we need to take steps, just like any responsible private investor would, to forestall the possibility of any future disruption to revenues to the state associated with those projects,” said Neal Kwatra, the director of political and strategic affairs for the New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council, which represents about 30,000 hotel workers, primarily in the city.þþThe projects covered under the directive include a planned conversion of the Harriman State Office Building Campus in Albany into a technology and research center; the development of the Hudson Yards on the West Side, which would include hotel space; and the Niagara Falls Heritage Park, where a hotel and a performance center are planned. þþState agencies and authorities could exempt projects from the requirement if they could show that it would substantially increase the cost to the state or prevent the project from moving forward.þþBusiness advocates said the directive could drive up labor costs and deter projects. þþ“My concern would be that new restrictions like this are likely to discourage private-sector developers from working on state projects,” said Kenneth Adams, president of the Business Council of New York State. “Right now, nothing is getting built in this economy. So why are we adding new costs to these projects?”þþ
Source: NY Times
