LONDON (Reuters) - New York's hopes of staging the 2012 Olympic Games were boosted Thursday when the city's labor unions agreed to unprecedented no-strike pledges.þþ``If the Games come to New York in 2012, union workers across the city will make sure it and all activities leading up to it will be a magnificent success,'' president of New York's Central Labor Council Brian McLaughlin said.þþSpeaking by telephone from the bid's headquarters, NYC2012's senior games advisor Donna De Varona said: ``The (union) commitments made to New York 2012 are unprecedented in Olympic Games history.þþ``The Olympic movement knows promises made in New York will be kept,'' the 1960 and 1964 swimming gold medallist added. New York is battling favorites Paris, London, Madrid and Moscow for the right to host the Olympics.þþA decision will be made on July 6 in Singapore at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) session.þþAll five candidate cities have been inspected by the IOC's evaluation commission, whose report will be made public a month before the IOC vote.þþDuring the visit to Paris, the French capital was crippled by strike action as tens of thousands of workers marched.þþUnions stressed their support for Paris's 2012 bid and said the strikes had not been intended to target the four-day visit by inspectors.þþHowever, French Sports Minister Jean-Francois Lamour said he would have ``preferred a better advertisement for the candidacy.''þþNew York, whose bid has been undermined by problems surrounding a key plot of land in Manhattan on which organizers want to built an Olympic stadium, hope Thursday's pledge will aid their cause.þþPresident of New York's Building and Construction Trades Council Ed Malloy said: ``This no-strike pledge is probably the biggest commitment we have given in the history of organized union labor.þþ``The Olympics is the greatest event in the world and I believe we are the greatest city in the world with the greatest labor force.'' þþ
Source: NY Times
