NYC Signs Labor Agreements Covering $1 Billion in Capital Projects

New York City Mayor Eric Adams (L) and BCTC President Gary LaBarbera (R) after announcing the Project Labor Agreements, at New York City Hall on Nov. 21, 2024. Oliver Mantyk/Epoch Times

New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Nov. 21 announced two labor agreements covering more than $1 billion in capital projects, including infrastructure improvements.

The two Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) with the Building & Construction Trades Council of Greater New York (BCTC), which represents more than 100,000 workers across the city, include the repair of the city’s sewers, roads, and bridges.

“PLAs enable the city to establish fair wages, benefits, and safety protections for workers while controlling construction costs and ensuring the timely completion of projects,” according to the mayor’s office.

The agreements also enable the city to use design-build delivery, which allows a single entity to be responsible for both project design and construction. Historically, the city has completed capital construction projects by separately awarding design and construction contracts, the mayor’s office said.

The design-build delivery model will be used for a $150 million greenway along the East Side Coastal Resiliency project in Lower Manhattan, a $40 million deep sewer manhole project in Brooklyn, a $240 million bridge and roadway improvement project on Belt Shore Parkway in South Brooklyn, and a $100 million waterfront dock and bulkhead reconstruction project at the Port Richmond and Rockaway Wastewater Resource Recovery facilities in Staten Island and Queens, according to the mayor’s office.

“We want to build those projects. So now we have the PLA that will allow us to do a few things. And I want to be very clear about the goals of PLAs,” First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer said. “[PLAs] great tool to ensure cost-effective, efficient, and safe capital project delivery. Through PLAs, we promote fair wages and benefits by ensuring labor harmony on critical projects.”

The mayor’s office said that one of the PLAs will support the transformation of Willets Point, a project he announced in November 2022. That project is expected to create 1,500 new jobs and 2,500 affordable housing units. The first batch of 880 housing units is expected to be ready by the end of 2026. A new soccer stadium will also be constructed at Willets Point. It will be paid for privately by the New York City Football Club. The stadium is set to open by 2027.

On Thursday, the mayor’s office said the Willets Point PLA will “facilitate the use of union labor to deliver districtwide infrastructure, including resilient sewers, new streets, and 150,000 square feet of public open space.”

Adams said that the New York City Economic Development Corporation also signed a letter of intent with BCTC, to “negotiate in good faith” additional PLAs for the Hunts Point Produce Market, the Kingsbridge Armory redevelopment, and the Science Park and Research Campus Kips Bay projects, a cumulative $1.88 billion in construction work. Adams said the agreements provided a framework for future deals that could cover as much as another $50 billion in construction projects.

“These agreements, covering more than a billion dollars in work, are a win-win-win: good union jobs for New Yorkers; faster, better, and more efficient capital projects; and billions of dollars of investment in communities that went ignored for decades,” Adams said in a statement.