Gary LaBarbera

President, New York State Building and Construction Trades Council, Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York 

Some of the biggest housing policy fights over the last decade have featured an emphatic LaBarbera on the opposite side of the negotiation table from the real estate industry — or screaming in front of crowds during rallies at nonunion development sites. 

For more than 15 years, LaBarbera has led the city-based chapter of the umbrella organization that represents more than 100,000 workers in the New York metro. In 2020, he took over the state chapter as well, after its president was accused of accepting bribes and having ties to organized crime. 

LaBarbera has pushed for prevailing wage requirements on housing projects receiving tax breaks and gone to bat against some of the city’s biggest developers. But the number of public brawls between the BCTC and real estate has wound down in recent years. LaBarbera reached a truce with Related Companies in 2019 that ended an ugly fight over the developer’s use of nonunion labor at Hudson Yards. Another agreement was made with REBNY to work together on issues where their interests align. 

He has pushed for expanding the kinds of publicly-subsidized projects where developers are required to pay construction workers prevailing wages, though the legislature declined to do so in 2025. LaBarbera has also defended wage requirements attached to the property tax break 485x, arguing that developer complaints about the mandates are overblown. 

The BCTC reached a deal with Mayor Eric Adams’ administration in 2024 to use union pension funds to help finance workforce housing in the city. LaBarbera sees this arrangement as a model that can be replicated in future administrations to address the city’s housing crisis.