Latest / OneLegUpAlex Media / LaborPress Radio Featuring Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York President Gary LaBarbera and Alex Garrett 9-5-24

Transcript

LaborPress Radio Featuring Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York President Gary LaBarbera and Alex Garrett 9-5-24 · OneLegUpAlex Media

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  Speaker 1: Well here at the Labor Press High Speed Rail Network
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  Speaker 1: conference or recognizable name, Gary Lebarbara, President of the New
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: York State Building and Construction Trades Council, joining me today.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Thanks for joining me, pleasure to be here. Nice to
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: see you firstill.
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  Speaker 1: You're honoring Terrio Sullivan. What does he meant to you
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  Speaker 1: and why are you speaking and honoring him?
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  Speaker 2: Well, let me just say, as a president of the
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  Speaker 2: State Trades and the City Trades, Terrio Sullivan as general
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  Speaker 2: president of LAYUNA, has been just an incredible support to
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  Speaker 2: me over the years. I've known Tony Teria a long time.
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  Speaker 2: Terry is you know, obviously one of the nation's greatest
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  Speaker 2: labor leaders. Uh. And that's why he's earned the title
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  Speaker 2: of you know, General President Emeritus at LUNA.
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  Speaker 1: UH.
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  Speaker 2: He was a driving force and really creating much of
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  Speaker 2: of current legislation that really helps hard working men and
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  Speaker 2: women in the labor movement, in particular labors.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: UH.
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  Speaker 2: He has been a extremely loud voice on behalf of
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  Speaker 2: all workers, not just his members or other members of
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  Speaker 2: the building trades.
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  Speaker 1: UH.
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  Speaker 2: And he, you know, my opinion, has remains still a
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  Speaker 2: force of nature. He's just a very unique and incredible guy.
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  Speaker 1: Well today it hays a tribute Tom.
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  Speaker 2: But he's not stopping now, right, No, he's not. He's
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  Speaker 2: he's I think he's just he's been as busy as
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  Speaker 2: he ever been. Uh, and he continues to do good
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  Speaker 2: work and works hard on behalf of the labor movement.
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  Speaker 2: And again, all working men and women.
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  Speaker 1: Let's focus on you now. So you're here to support
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  Speaker 1: the high speed rail networking, right, how from your standpoint
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  Speaker 1: with this benefit, what your mission is as president of
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  Speaker 1: the New York State Building and Construction trightcounts.
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  Speaker 2: Well, there's a couple of components that I think are
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  Speaker 2: important to recognize. First of all, let's just talk about
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  Speaker 2: high speed rail for a moment. I mean, this is
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  Speaker 2: something that is absolutely necessary in order for states, for
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  Speaker 2: North Eric Frankly, to remain irrelevant and remain competitive. High
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  Speaker 2: speed rail is I think a very important necessity, critical infrastructure.
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  Speaker 2: It really is what drives are our economy. And so
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  Speaker 2: I mean that's just the fundamental fact. Beyond the virtues
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  Speaker 2: of high spuel rail, the job creation for this would
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  Speaker 2: be incredible. And again I believe that there's opportunities to
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  Speaker 2: do things that are very good for the states and
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  Speaker 2: for the nation. And for the economy, but at the
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  Speaker 2: same time create meaningful pathways into the middle class with
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  Speaker 2: strong union jobs. And so this is yet another example
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  Speaker 2: of one of those areas. Much like renewable energy again
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  Speaker 2: same theory. Right, we have to address the claib timate change,
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  Speaker 2: we have to address the needs. And by building out
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  Speaker 2: renewable energy, we can do two things. We can address
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  Speaker 2: the critical needs that are we face we face with
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  Speaker 2: the climate crisis, as well as creating meaningful pathways through
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  Speaker 2: union apprenticeships and union careers into the middle class.
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  Speaker 1: I feel like when new construction goes up, you're always
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  Speaker 1: on the news talking about it. So how is the
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  Speaker 1: construction scene in New York post COVID? That mean we're
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  Speaker 1: four years out of it now, So how has it
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  Speaker 1: been since since that time?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I will tell you thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill,
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  Speaker 2: which you know, obviously President Biden gets an enormous amount
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  Speaker 2: of credit for you know, there hasn't been a infrastructure
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  Speaker 2: program like what we have today since post World War Two,
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  Speaker 2: and that I think is something that should be recognized.
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  Speaker 2: That bill has created an enormous amount of infrastructure work,
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  Speaker 2: which is employing you know, one hundreds of thousand and
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  Speaker 2: some members in here in New York State and millions
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  Speaker 2: of members in North America. So that has been a
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  Speaker 2: critical component of creating tremendous work opportunities. There's still in
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  Speaker 2: New York City, in New York State, there's some very
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  Speaker 2: major projects that are taking place and more to come.
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  Speaker 2: So the construction outlook looks positive. Unfortunately, due to you know,
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  Speaker 2: the interest rates, the private sector remains a little sluggish.
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  Speaker 2: But in terms of institutional work or healthcare projects or
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  Speaker 2: some very big megaprojects, like for example, in Queen's we
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  Speaker 2: have a new soccer stadium which is to come up
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  Speaker 2: by field, right, so that's going to be a great product.
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  Speaker 2: Buffalo you got that with the Buffalo Bill Stadium. And
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  Speaker 2: this is all done under project labor agreements, which you know,
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  Speaker 2: assures that these will be good building trades jobs and
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  Speaker 2: many many others, right, and more to come. So I
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  Speaker 2: think overall that the outlook looks good. I think twenty
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  Speaker 2: twenty five is going to be a fairly robust year
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  Speaker 2: in the construction industry, and I would believe those projects
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  Speaker 2: that will be starting next year and into twenty twenty six, frankly,
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  Speaker 2: will generate strong work opportunities for the next several years
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  Speaker 2: beyond that.
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  Speaker 1: Talk about navigating you know, your work and then dealing
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  Speaker 1: with construction companies and all that through all the negotiations.
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  Speaker 1: Talk about it give us a little insight into all
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  Speaker 1: the negotiations that maybe public doesn't.
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  Speaker 2: Say, right. So what I would say is that my
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  Speaker 2: role as the president of the Building Trades Councils is
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  Speaker 2: multi level. You know, not only do I, you know,
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  Speaker 2: negotiate project labor agreements with state agencies, city agencies, private
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  Speaker 2: sector owners, private sector contract is there is a big
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  Speaker 2: piece of what I do is really on the economic
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  Speaker 2: development front, and that is to try to move forward projects.
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  Speaker 2: And you know it's hard to get projects yes, right,
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  Speaker 2: so and and and you know, we it's all in
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  Speaker 2: terms of there's always issues, whether it's a public work
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  Speaker 2: or private work to move projects forward. And so I
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  Speaker 2: spend a lot of my time dealing with those issues,
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  Speaker 2: right and and and another big component of of what
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  Speaker 2: I do is, you know, legislation. The construction industry is
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  Speaker 2: unique in that where we come when you think about construction,
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  Speaker 2: big construction companies or even subcontractors, we have a very
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  Speaker 2: different relationship than many other labor management relationships because we're
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  Speaker 2: all on the same page in terms of moving projects forward.
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  Speaker 2: And so there's a very strong collaboration between employee associations
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  Speaker 2: and the building Trades Council. UH, and that helps a
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  Speaker 2: great deal and I look like, well then negotiations on
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  Speaker 2: project lava agreements.
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  Speaker 1: UH.
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  Speaker 2: You know, there's always some competing issues, but for the
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  Speaker 2: most part, the relationships are strong in this industry. We
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  Speaker 2: we all sides of this industry consider it the industry,
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  Speaker 2: and so I think that really makes the relationship stronger
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  Speaker 2: and unique in a lot of ways. Thank you very
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  Speaker 2: much for having me. It was a pleasure to see
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  Speaker 2: you again. Take care,