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Labor unions play nice as jobs dry up

From the March issue: New York has long been known as the most expensive city for construction in the country, largely because of the high labor costs here. But recently the construction industry -- fearful that jobs are going to dry up if building comes to a halt -- has started playing nice. To combat the slowdown, two recent initiatives have been launched in an attempt to keep the industry afloat. The first is a proposal to create a $300 million fund to finance construction projects; the second is a joint effort by unions and developers to cut labor costs by 25 percent. On the labor side, New York unions have made headlines for contemplating the creation of a $100 million kitty that would use pension money to finance construction projects, according to the New York State Building and Construction Trades Council, which represents local unions across the state. The unions, as has been reported, are seeking matching funds from the city and state to bring the fund up to $300 million. While this is the first time in recent memory that the construction industry has stepped up in this fashion, it's not the first time a union has opted to use some of its money to boost development, said Richard Anderson, president of the New York Building Congress, a trade group of construction and real estate companies.