Board backs union in hotel flap

By Julie Shapiro

A vocal and fired-up group of New York City District Council of Carpenters members attended the Feb. 27 Community Board 3 meeting to advocate higher wages and benefits for nonunion workers employed by The Pomeranc Group. The nonunion workers are building a 20-story hotel for Pomeranc at 200 Allen St.

“We’re here to send the message that we will never be silenced,” organizer Andres Puerta told the meeting. “We will fight for these workers until the end.”

The union got involved when Puerta discovered that the nonunion workers were making only $15 an hour. This is well below the prevailing carpenter’s wage of $42 an hour, a number determined by the state Department of Labor. The 200 Allen St. workers also do not get healthcare, a pension plan or mandated safety training, according to the union.

At the meeting, C.B. 3 unanimously passed a resolution encouraging Pomeranc representatives to meet with the union and help the nonunion workers attain higher wages and other benefits.

“The best thing would be for both sides to meet to try to resolve this,” Susan Stetzer, C.B. 3 district manager, said after the meeting.

Puerta appreciates C.B. 3’s decision.

“The vast majority have told me that they would love to join a union but that their contractor would never sign a union agreement,” Puerta said. “If you’re going to develop here, you should be returning to the community through good jobs and benefits for workers and their families.”

Earlier in February, Puerta met with Greg Durham, a Pomeranc representative, at a C.B. 3 task force meeting about the 200 Allen St. hotel. The task force recommended the resolution that C.B. 3 passed on Feb. 27.

About a week after the meeting, Pomeranc issued an injunction against the union for secondary boycotting. Union members were picketing Pomeranc’s other hotels and headquarters, in addition to the Allen St. site, which is illegal, Durham said. Lawyers on both sides agreed that the union would stop protesting for a 30-day cooling-off period, which ends March 19.

On March 2, Puerta met with a representative from Pav-Lak, the general contractor for the hotel. Pav-Lak listened to the union’s concerns about wages.

“They said they’d take our concerns to Pomeranc,” Puerta said. At the meeting, Pav-Lak said Pomeranc makes the decision about union versus nonunion workers, Puerta said. Pav-Lak did not return calls for comment.

Durham said Pomeranc is not part of the hiring process — Pav-Lak is in charge of that — and added that Pomeranc would not prevent workers from unionizing.

If Pomeranc does not meet with the union by the end of the cooling-off period, Puerta will launch daily protests.

“The community has come together,” Puerta said, referring to the unanimous C.B. 3 decision. “It would be ridiculous to me if Pomeranc ignored the community.”