Local 79 brings Scabby to the Empire State Building
Construction workers and general building laborers who make up LIUNA Local 79 planned to rally on Thursday, January 16, at 3 p.m. in front of the Empire State Building.
The union has posted several large Scabby the Rat inflatables as sentries near the building’s entrance for more than a week now. Local 79 has been complaining about the Empire State Building’s record of working with contractors who employ non-union workers. Those workers, Local 79 claims, are not earning the type of salaries normally paid to building laborers in New York City.
Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2023 showed that in New York, construction workers make an average yearly wage ranging between $63,830 and $68,210. But that’s not what workers at the iconic Empire State Building are being paid, contend union members who say they have spoken with the non-union workers in efforts to help them.
The Empire State Building is owned and operated by the Empire State Realty Trust (ESRT), a real estate investment trust (REIT). The company owns 28 New York City-based buildings, most of which have units leased out to office and retail clients.
ESRT works with subcontractors who bring in their own employees to do the work of maintaining the buildings. Local 79 members say those workers are hired by contractors who come in to do various buildouts, demolition services, or general contracting work. But if the subcontractors are not paying equitable wages and not properly supporting worker rights, they are chipping away at the gains union workers have made in the industry.
“Every day, Laborers’ Local 79 is outside the Empire State Building to highlight the exploitation of non-union construction workers at this iconic building,” Oona Adams, Local 79’s director of organizing said in a statement to the AmNews. “It is shameful and wrong that Empire State Realty has chosen to hire contractors who refuse to pay family-sustaining wages and benefits to non-union construction laborers. We fight to ensure that all construction laborers are paid fairly, treated with respect, and able to do their jobs safely.”
Phone calls and emails to ESRT for a response to Local 79’s claims were not returned before the Amsterdam News went to press.
A union flier posted near the protest rally site states that Local 79 is “.. committed to a healthy, diverse, and equitable workplace that actively promotes employee growth and development and drives positive social impact for the well-being of our employees, tenants, and the communities we serve.
“If the Empire State Realty Trust is committed to the communities they serve, why have they now taken the stance of putting profits over people? Every construction worker working in their building should be paid a living wage so they can actually invest in the community. Instead the Empire State Realty Trust has adopted a practice of hiring substandard contractors to work in their buildings. These contractors don’t pay area standard wages and benefits that every hard worker deserves.”
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