Karp: Move to Melville won't cost workers

A Queens manufacturer has cleared its final hurdle to receive tax breaks, pledging in a letter not to reduce workers' pay and benefits by moving to Melville.

Karp Associates Inc. and its sister company, Flush Metal Partitions, told the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency that moving to 260 Spagnoli Rd. "is in no way linked to any compensation concessions by Karp's employees."

The companies make metal doors and bathroom stalls.

In a letter, Karp operations vice president George Kosser said, "From the outset of negotiations with the unions, it has never been the intention of Karp to reduce its employees' compensation or medical benefits."

He also said the companies' commitment to having workers represented by unions "is unwavering."

The businesses employ 108 people who earn, on average, $36,481 per year. The move to Melville isn't expected to create jobs, records show.

The IDA's board of directors requested the written pledge in January after two directors said they heard rumors that Karp planned to cut payroll expenses. Union leaders then told Newsday that Karp owner Adam Gold had sought concessions in contract negotiations.

It's unusual for a local development agency to make an aid package contingent on a written promise involving workers' pay and benefits.

The companies spent $10 million to purchase and renovate the Melville building because their Maspeth property is to be demolished for a replacement to the Kosciuszko Bridge.

New York State has paid $14 million in compensation, which Karp executives have publicly complained isn't enough. The executives also asked for more aid from the IDA, which ultimately offered an aid package that includes a 15-year property tax abatement.

IDA treasurer Peter Zarcone Jr., who first questioned Karp's employee compensation plans, expressed satisfaction this week about the written promise. "I applaud them for following through on this," said Zarcone, who also is an officer in Local 66 of the Laborers International Union. "I wanted to make sure what they said in their application to us, in terms of the workers, didn't change once they moved to the county."