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Crain’s New York: Making Construction Safer In The City Requires Investment, Not Organized Labor

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From Crain’s New York:

To the Editor:

A May 15 letter from a union leader misrepresented the construction industry’s opposition to a proposed apprenticeship mandate in New York City by spouting union platitudes.

In “Apprenticeships Ensure Safety For Construction Workers,ā€ Eric Dean pretended that the construction industry is striving to avoid paying for safety training.

That’s nonsense.

Last year alone, contractors belonging to Associated Builders & Contractors spent over $1.1 billion to develop talent and ensure workers are safe with proper training. Much of that training involved task-specific safety classes, skills development and other instruction geared toward empowering workers to become leaders that promote a culture of safety on the job site. A ground-up safety program is necessary and thatā€™s what weā€™ve proposed to the City Council.

Incidentally, we believe that New York City construction needs more training that is data-driven to address the underlying problems.

A deeper analysis of the city’s construction-worker deaths revealed that over 75% of the incidents were on projects below 10 stories. Arguably thatā€™s where the most attention needs to be. But Mr. Dean neglected to disclose that his apprenticeship plan would only apply to projects 10 stories and higher. This would have done nothing to protect a majority of the lives lost.

The proposed mandate is a badly disguised market-grab effort by unions to steer business their way. It would cost thousands of New Yorkers their jobsā€”while doing nothing for safety.

New York and its hardworking tradespeople deserve better.

Brian Sampson

President

Associated Builders & Contractors, Empire State Chapter

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As a full-service trade association, ABC offers a variety of information, tools and services to its members.

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Membership is available for general contractors, subcontractors, associates and suppliers.

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