Union labor law no quick fix for affordable housing: OPINION

Mandating union construction would prevent hiring of local contractors, per op-ed

From left: Atlantic Yards rendering, Bruce Ratner of Forest City Ratner and Goldman Sachs Urban chief executive Gary Cohn
From left: Atlantic Yards rendering, Bruce Ratner of Forest City Ratner and Goldman Sachs Urban chief executive Gary Cohn

A trade group for New York’s affordable housing sector is urging Mayor Bill de Blasio to consider whether using union labor for inclusionary zoning projects will do any good, according to an op-ed from member Nancy Lepre.

A recently-proposed law requiring union labor on all affordable housing developments is “no magic bullet” for reaching Mayor Bill de Blasio’s affordable housing goals, wrote Lepre, a member of the New York State Association for Affordable Housing. Whether such a measure would make construction sites any safer, improve worker wages or benefits is equally uncertain, she opined.

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“Furthermore, mandating union labor on all affordable housing projects will only prevent hiring local subcontractors,” Lepre wrote. Such obstacles to development, she said, could ultimately do more harm than good in the pursuit of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s affordable housing push.

Lepre, who runs a painting and contracting businesses, is on the trade group’s board along with Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group and Forest City Ratner Companies, whose Atlantic Yards project is slated to house 2,250 units of affordable housing, as previously reported[Crain’s] Angela Hunt