Engineers Local 138 quits trades council
Bill Duffy Jr. says Operating Engineers Local 138 has left the Nassau-Suffolk Building Trades Council. (May 19, 2011) Credit: Heather Walsh
In a split in Long Island's labor movement, Local 138 of the Operating Engineers has resigned from the huge Nassau-Suffolk Building Trades Council, citing sharp disagreements with the council's tactics in negotiating with developers.
Bill Duffy Jr., Local 138's president, said his biggest disagreement with the council was on what he said was its insistence that developers sign so-called "project labor agreements," which govern days and hours of work but have been attacked by some in the business community for being too rigid. Duffy said he also objected to the council's use of "profane rhetoric" and the inflated rats set up as protest measures at job sites.
The PLAs, bad language and the rat symbols get in the way of negotiations with developers at a time when union members need all the work they can get, Duffy said. "This is a big step for us," said Duffy, whose local represents 1,800 heavy-machine operators. "We feel our job is to sit down with the general contractor or municipality and make sure our men are going to work at the site."
A case in point, Duffy said, is the proposed Heartland Town Center on the grounds of Pilgrim State Hospital in Brentwood. Duffy said the council wanted developer Gerald Wolkoff to sign a PLA. In an interview, Wolkoff said he refused to sign any such document.
PLAs, around since the 1930s, have become controversial in recent years, coming under fire from Republican politicians, who say they hinder development. James Castellane, president of the 65,000-member Hauppauge-based council, declined to comment.
Duffy said that resigning from the council means his local will not be represented by that organization in talks with developers or municipalities. "They don't speak for us," he said. "We're on our own."
Other locals have also resigned. A year ago Local 138 and four others -- Laborers Local 1298, Carpenters Local 7, I.U.O.E Local 15 and Teamsters Local 282 -- formed the Public Works Alliance.
"We respect every other union and believe in the union movement," Duffy said. "But the game has changed."
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