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Long Island Unions Create New Alliance
Two Long Island unions try to carve out new opportunities for their membership. Also, the GBC honors contractors on the state’s top projects.
Labor Locals Form New Alliance
Two of Long Island’s largest labor organizations will be joining forces to create the Long Island Construction Labor Alliance.
The Operating Engineers Local Union 138 and the Empire State Regional Council of Carpenters are forming the alliance to recapture $2 billion of building and construction volume that they contend the AFL-CIO labor movement has overlooked. The new alliance will be headquartered in Hauppauge and will take part in the Building and Construction Trades Council of Long Island, an AFL-CIO group.
The new alliance’s main focus will be to expand employment opportunities for its 5,000 members. It unveiled a six-point agenda to increase work volume, including plans to target specific construction jobs, negotiate project labor agreements, and picket when owners refuse to meet with alliance members.
The alliance will also focus attention on ensuring that public agencies are awarding contracts to the lowest responsible bidder and not just the lowest bidder overall. It will also try to ensure that contracting companies are paying full prevailing wages as required; expand union labor into the region’s residential market; and strengthen its base in markets such as heavy civil and highway construction.
Green Building Forum in Rochester
The Greater Rochester Enterprise and the U.S. Green Building Council held “Turning Green into Growth,” last fall in Rochester, N.Y., a forum moderated and coordinated by U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton of New York. The forum aimed in part to promote Rochester as a hub of innovation for alternative energy.
The speakers at the forum were Peter Arsenault, principal architect at Stantec Architecture, a Canadian firm with Rochester offices; Eric Reiser, vice president for strategic programs at Johnson Controls of Milwaukee; and Jay Murdoch, technical marketing manager at Owens Corning of Toledo, Ohio.
GBC Presents Build N.Y. Awards
The General Building Contractors of New York State unveiled its 2006 Build New York awards in a ceremony held at a restored 130-year-old Buffalo church that was one of the winners.
Representatives of the 2006 Build New York Award-winning firms accepted their honors from the General Building Contractors of New York. Pictured, from left, are: Marty Knauss and Dave Duffett, Lehigh; Mark Breslin, Turner Construction; Chuck Winter, Andron Construction; and Bryan Fox, MLB Construction Services. |
The $10 million restoration of the former Delaware Asbury Methodist Church, now known as “The Church,” was one of six honored projects. The awards cite contractors and construction managers for outstanding management skills, imagination, overcoming challenges, safety excellence, and innovation.
The New Project winners were Andron Construction of Goldens Bridge for the Nolen Greenhouses at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx and Turner Construction of New York for Manhattan’s Hearst Tower. The winner in the New/Renovation Project category was LeChase Construction Services of Rochester for its Beck Center and Statler Auditorium project at Cornell University’s Statler School of Hotel Administration in Ithaca.
The Renovation Project category winners were Lehigh Construction Group of Buffalo for its restoration and renovation of the 1876 Buffalo church, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, and MLB Construction Services of Malta for its renovation of College Park Hall at Union College in Schenectady.
The winner for Innovation in Project Delivery was LPCiminelli of Buffalo for managing the Buffalo Public Schools Capital Program Phase 1. The GBC also gave Honorable Mention in the New Project category to BBL Construction Services of Albany for the Glens Falls Hospital Northwest Tower in Glens Falls.
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