Labor Board requires Hudson Yards unions to stop strikes
The National Labor Relations Board imposed a settlement requiring that the steamfitters union stop illegal job actions against firms working at Hudson Yards.
Hudson Yards Construction filed a complaint with the NLRB alleging that Steamfitters Local 638 engaged in an illegal “sympathy” strike at 55 Hudson Yards, to try to coerce companies and contractors to do business with another union, Sheet Metal Workers International Association Local Union 28.
Under the agreement, Steamfitters Local 638 is required to post copies of a notice to members vowing not to engage in strikes or other illegal job actions.
The case centers on union workers employed by KSW Mechanical LLC and Sheet Metal Inc.
“WE WILL NOT engage in, or induce or encourage individuals employed by KSW Mechanical LLC, or any another person engaged in commerce or in an industry affecting commerce, to engage in a strike,” said the notice, signed by Local 38 business agent Robert Bartels.
Labor strife has been an ongoing problem at Hudson Yards, the largest private real estate construction project in the country, often pitting the chief builder, Hudson Yards Construction, a subsidiary of Related Cos, against the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York.
“The illegal and puzzling strike by Local 638 led by Robert Bartels, Jr. is just the latest in a pattern of violations of agreements by the BCTC and its member unions. Both Local 638 and Local 28 were employed on the job under CBAs and the illegal strike served no purpose but to cost their members 20% of a week’s pay and require disciplinary action by the NLRB,” Hudson Yards Development Corp. said in a statement.
“In a lawsuit filed recently, Hudson Yards Construction laid out additional continued violations of safety rules, no-show jobs and the dissemination of false and defamatory information.”
Bartels did not return a call for comment.
The Post last month found construction workers at Hudson Yard drinking booze on their lunch breaks.