Almost all of the reported legislative goals of the 2019 New York State budget passed— a plastic bag ban, congestion pricing, and a mansion tax. However, noticeably missing from this year’s budget was a prevailing wage expansion.
CWP greeted attendees of Gov. Cuomo’s speech today with educational flyers highlighting negative impacts of any potential prevailing wage expansion on communities of color.
Construction Workforce Project Hosts inaugural OSHA 10 Class in Harlem, New York City.
As an advocacy group for New York’s non-union, open shop workforce, the Construction Workforce Project (CWP) is reminding New Yorkers how any prevailing wage will sabotage hard-earned employment and housing opportunities.
Troy’s unemployment rate remains higher than the national average, and many residents are not seeing access to great job opportunities. Rather than address the problem, the legislature is currently considering a prevailing wage expansion that has the potential to exacerbate the situation and further hurt the city’s working families.
A policy couldn’t be built on a shakier foundation.
Open shop workers are the silent majority in New York’s construction workforce. In fact, approximately 70% of private developments in the city are now being built by these workers. And as the use of open shop expands, more New Yorkers of color are working more than ever before.
If there’s one thing that New Yorkers can agree on, it’s that we should always strive to create new jobs, not take them away. Amazon’s recent decision to withdraw its planned “HQ2” from Long Island City is an example of us failing on this front.
If the deal is to be salvaged, Amazon and New York officials need to do all they can to address local concerns and deliver jobs for local workers.
We at Construction Workforce Project firmly believe that longtime Brooklynites should benefit from the rapid pace of development, which can only truly happen if construction job opportunities are made available to local residents.
