City Labor Leaders Go to Bat For Proposed U.N. Expansion

Now that Mayor Bloomberg’s dreams for the West Side stadium have died in Albany, some of that project’s strongest proponents, organized labor, have gone to battle for the administration’s pet development project on the other side of Manhattan, pledging intense lobbying efforts on the United Nations expansion before the state Legislature ends its session June 23.The hourglass is emptying for the proposed “swing space” and consolidation building that would accommodate the United Nations while its headquarters undergoes a $1.2 billion renovation. Indeed, U.N. officials have all but ruled out the prospect of using the proposed 900,000-square-foot building at a neighboring city park, Robert Moses Playground, as temporary office space during the renovations, saying delays in Albany mean the edifice could be ready no sooner than 2010, when the world body needs to begin its refurbishment no later than 2007.The United Nations has not officially abandoned its swing-space plans and still hopes to erect the building as consolidation space. For the United Nations to avoid repetitive moves and a costly leasing of temporary space during the refurbishment, however, would probably require breaking the Albany impasse on the Moses building during the current legislative session.So New York organized-labor groups, particularly those in the construction trades, plan a “full court press” to keep the swing space’s hopes alive, the chairman of the Building Trades Employers’ Association, Louis Coletti, said. Besides Mr. Coletti, labor leaders working with the United Nations Development Corporation to influence the Legislature’s leadership include the president of the Building and Construction Trades Council, Edward Malloy; the president of the 2.5-million-member state AFLCIO, Denis Hughes, and the president of the New York City Central Labor Council, Brian McLaughlin. Their efforts will be directed particularly at the Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, Republican of Rensselaer, and at the leading opponents to the project in the Senate, Republicans Martin Golden of Brooklyn and Serphin Maltese of Queens. Labor leaders want to have the stalled legislation brought to the floor and approved in the nine working days left in the legislative session.Mr. Coletti said he and Mr. Malloy had already trekked to Albany to lobby for the project, which he said would be a vital source of construction-industry jobs in the city, all the more important now that, in light of the Jets stadium’s demise, the thousands of construction jobs anticipated from that project will not be realized. Most of the resources and attention of the construction unions had been consumed by the stadium project, he said. “I think that now that that is out of the way, unfortunately, we’ll be able to focus on U.N. development,” Mr. Coletti said. He also said it is essential for the U.N. bill to go through to show that New York City, even following the stadium decision, is not a place hostile to development.As a result, Mr. Coletti said, many of the players on the stadium issue would now be jumping into the U.N. fray. “We’ll be reaching out to the minority community, as we had with the Jets, to enlist their support,” Mr. Coletti said. He said he would be meeting today with perhaps the most visible member of the minority community to back the stadium, Reverend Alford Sharpton, and would be discussing the U.N. legislation with him.Also attempting to sway state lawmakers is the president of the New York Building Congress, Richard Anderson, who said he has met with Messrs. Bruno, Golden, and Maltese to convey displeasure at the stalled legislation.The displeasure of the New York Building Congress is nothing to be taken lightly. According to Mr. Anderson, the congress is comprised of about 1,500 major building and construction organizations, including several major organized-labor groups. One of the labor groups represented by the congress, Mr. Malloy’s New York Building and Construction Trades Council, is the second-largest legislative campaign contributor across New York State and, according to Crain’s New York Business, donated $1 million to Assembly Democrats and Senate Republicans in an effort to help each house’s leader keep his majority.The congress also represents several architecture, contracting, and engineering firms. One of those firms, Syska Hennessy – whose chairman until last year, John F. Hennessy III, is a former chairman of the Building Congress and a current board member – has been retained to do renovation design work on the Secretariat and U.N. headquarters. Another of the firms represented in the congress, Park Tower Realty, is headed by George Klein, chairman of the UNDC, whom Mr. Anderson described as a personal friend.Mr. Coletti said he would be meeting soon with the former Republican state senator who is president of the development corporation, Roy Goodman, to devise a specific plan for getting the legislation passed by the end of the session, and he expected that much of the lobbying work would involve private meetings with Senate leadership. Mr. Anderson, however, anticipated that some of the campaign would involve having members of the Building Congress write letters and place telephone calls to legislators. A spokesman for Mr. Hughes, Mario Cilento, said the state AFL-CIO leader might lend his name to advertising in behalf of the effort.The prospect of West Side stadium style lobbying from organized labor came as observers speculated that the gridlock on the U.N. legislation, an annoyance to officials of the world body since Mr. Bruno refused to bring the bill to the Senate floor in early December, might be breaking. The U.N. assistant secretary-general for central support services, Andrew Toh, said last week that he understood a resolution to the legislative impasse would be reached before the end of the session. Mr. Goodman would neither confirm nor deny reports that an agreement had been reached, but he said: “Andrew is a very well-informed man.”Key players in Albany indicated, however, that no deal has been struck.

City Labor Leaders Go to Bat For Proposed U.N. Expansion

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