Construction workers back Tappan Zee plan

These are desperate times for the folks who make their living in the cabs of backhoes, bulldozers and cement trucks, churning up dirt and gravel and pouring concrete to build and repair New York's roads, bridges and tunnels.

Lately, there just hasn't been enough work to go around.

Heavy-equipment operators are maxing out their unemployment benefits. Unions have been forced to tap into reserves to pay health insurance premiums -- premiums that would have been picked up by contractors if the union members were working. And members who have logged as little as 24 hours of work in the past year are facing home foreclosures.

"I've been in this industry for 49 years, and this is by far the worst it's ever been," said Al Girardi, 69, business manager for Local 137 of the International Union of Operating Engineers in Briarcliff Manor, Westchester County. "It's really horrible what our people are going through. People come into my office every day, and I don't know what to say to them."

Given those challenges, it's no wonder Girardi's members see Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's $5.4 billion plan to replace the Tappan Zee Bridge as a godsend. Workers have been vocal in their support for the bridge, showing up in numbers at town hall meetings on the Tappan Zee Bridge project and shouting down critics with chants of "Build the Bridge!"

The construction trades have worked closely with Cuomo to make the bridge project feasible, agreeing to major concessions on work rules and limits on overtime. According to the governor's office, those concessions will save taxpayers $450 million in costs if the new bridge is built. Unions also have agreed not to strike, eliminating a threat that could cost $1 million per day.

The state's construction trades have lost 59,000 jobs since July 2008, making it the second worst-hit middle-wage industry behind manufacturing, according to a study by the Fiscal Policy Institute in New York City.

Cuomo, however, has predicted the bridge project will generate as many as 45,000 jobs.

For Phil Jackson, a 59-year-old heavy-equipment operator, this is the third serious economic downturn he's has been through -- and by far the worst, he said. This year, he has worked just three weeks.

"You've got a pile of bills and you've got $10 to spend," the Beacon resident said. "I realize there are bigger problems in the world than our unemployment, but to us this is big."