Luxury Dumbo Development Puts Workers At Risk, Union Says

DUMBO, BROOKLYN — A massive Brooklyn building site has become the center of a campaign against its development company CIM, which local union organizers say has put construction workers at risk by hiring contracting companies with sketchy pasts.

A coalition of union organizers from about a dozen different trades have been trying to get the word out for months about 85 Jay Street, which will become Front and York – a huge luxury development being built by CIM and another company, LIVWRK, that will bring 408 condos and 320 rental spots to the market later this year.

The project, the organizers say, is a prime example of CIM's practice of hiring contractors that put workers in danger. Most recently, the organizers have set up a "CIM Exposed" website and started speaking at local community board meetings to demand CIM change its ways.

"These contractors...have a history of health and safety violations, not to mention cheating workers of their hard-earned money," said Angelo Angelone, business manager with Cement and Concrete District Council of NY. "We need to send a message to contractors that this type of behavior is unacceptable in New York City.”

The unions' research includes a history of lawsuits filed against one of the contractors now working at 85 Jay Street, EDC NY, including an active case that claims sexual discrimination and a 2015 settlement where EDC paid more than $7,000 after workers claimed they weren't given overtime pay.

The research also points out that a company with the same CEO as EDC, East Coast Drilling, was one of several contractors that the New York State Attorney General sued for illegally dumping toxic waste at Roberto Clemente Park.

The unions said that workers at 85 Jay Street have told them that similar wage and hour violations have occurred at the Dumbo site.

When asked for comment, CIM sent a statement referring to its "Responsible Contractor Policy" and said that contractors are hired through an open bidding process, which is open to both union and non-union contractors, and that each hire goes through background checks and legal searches.

"Construction unfortunately remains a dangerous and litigious business, and risk is only partially controllable," the statement said. "Even contractors considered safe and responsible may have lawsuits, violations and disputes on record, which are incurred as part of their normal course of business. We believe that each of the contractors hired for the project at 85 Jay Street are consistent with our Responsible Contractor Policy and the project is regularly overseen by the City of New York Department of Buildings at its discretion.”

Aside from getting the public's attention, organizers said their campaign is largely about letting the 85 Jay Street workers know what their rights are, Jayro Valladares, a field representative for Local 79, said. The union representatives have been going to 85 Jay Street each day to hand out pamphlets and try to talk to workers that may have problems.

"You want to let them know that this fight is not against them... and dispel the myths that these non-union companies will try to tell them," Valladares said. "We just want to educate them on what they're worth and that they should be making more money."

Doing that, though, is difficult at sites like 85 Jay Street where workers have said they feel threatened for even talking to a union representative, Valladares said. One worker featured on the Exposed CIM website said his bosses fired him after accusing him of giving a union organizer "information that nobody can know."

This fear, organizers said, can also lead workers to take part in unsafe practices at job sites, which the unions claim is an ongoing problem at 85 Jay Street. The worker featured on the website said he was told to go into contaminated soil without the right protective gear, but did so anyway because he felt obligated.

Laborer Tymel Walker, a member of Local 79 who has been organizing against 85 Jay Street, said this is common fear on sites with unsafe practices.

"You want to get a check to come home and feed your family, so that's pressure to do things that are unsafe," Walker said. "You are in danger of losing your job."

The union's research calls out New Line Structures and Cranes Express, the construction manager and a crane rental company used at 85 Jay Street, who were connected to multiple construction worker deaths at other sites over the last few years.

There have been no fatalities at 85 Jay Street, but Department of Buildings records show that there are six violations and 58 complaints filed at the site, about half of which are for "site conditions endangering workers." All six of the violations and all but two of the complaints are marked resolved. Just this week there was a partial stop work order on the property, which has since been lifted.

Some of the organizers said the discrepancy between the number of complaints and the number of violations could be because contractors have time to fix the problem before DOB inspectors show up.

"Oftentimes you’ll see a date when the complaint was made and when they do the inspection, it could be 24 hours or later," Jennie Encalada-Malinowski, a policy coordinator with New York State Laborers' Organizing Fund, said. "The risky situation won’t be there anymore."

Several of the violations claim that when a worker was hurt on the job site the companies had the worker sent to the hospital in a car instead of calling an ambulance, or in one case even moved the worker inside, out of view, when an ambulance was called.

Encalada-Malinowski said the NYS Laborers, who are largely leading the coalition of unions, plan to continue calling attention to the issue so that local officials and the public will know what contractors or developers are bad actors.

At a Community Board 2 meeting last week, Walker and other workers asked the board to invite CIM's president to a meeting. The workers also rally outside of CIM's offices on Madison Avenue in Manhattan every Wednesday, Encalada-Malinowski said.

"There’s a larger, long term goal of having the public and our elected officials — folks who make decisions in terms of projects and bidding — aware," she said. "If contractors don’t want to abide by safety (practices), making sure workers are being paid and not stealing wages, then they shouldn’t be doing work in New York."

EDC NY, New Line Structures and Cranes Express all did not respond to requests for comment.