Unions file suit to halt construction at City Point

A coalition of unions and community groups filed suit in Manhattan Supreme Court yesterday against a bevy of opponents — Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Acadia Realty Trust and various city housing agencies, just to name a few. The coalition is also asking for a halt to construction at City Point, a large mixed-use project in Downtown Brooklyn, the New York Daily News reported.

The groups say that the $15 an hour paid by developer Acadia to workers constructing the 1.9 million-square-foot project are “poverty-level wages,” the News said.

The wage, which comes with no benefits, is less than half what unionized construction workers in New York City generally receive, the News said. Acadia’s opponents say taxpayer dollars have gone to the project, which should include 650 apartments, and that the developer promised a living wage for workers at the planned tower, at the intersection of Flatbush and DeKalb avenues.

“The City Point project is being built on public land and financed through a tremendous amount of public funds,” state Assemblyman Walter Mosley told the News. “Yet its developers are blatantly reneging on promises made and disregarding the most basic needs of the hardworking New Yorkers that make this project possible.” [NYDN] –Guelda Voien