NYS Senate Labor Committee Chair to PIMCO, CalSTRS: Ignore Me All You Want – This is Worker Betrayal

New York, NY – Last week, roiling anger over union pension funds being used to help kill good union jobs and promote further worker exploitation across the city, propelled members of the unionized Building Trades and their nonunion counterparts in the construction industry to briefly block traffic along 12th Avenue in West Chelsea. 

Now, those same union pension fund managers behind so-called “open shop” developments at 261 11th Avenue in Manhattan and at least one other at 1515 Surf Avenue in Brooklyn, are refusing to answer charges they are actively “betraying” working class people and callously treating vulnerable immigrant communities and people of color as “disposable.” 

Three of six nonunion workers who participated in the Feb. 17, demonstration outside the Terminal Warehouse and testified about the exploitation they experienced there, have since been fired off the job.

Nevertheless, both CalSTRS [California State Teachers Retirement System] and PIMCO [Pacific Investment Management Company] — the giant investment groups handling union pension funds who are simultaneously involved in nonunion building projects — refused to respond to charges New York State Senator Jessica Ramos made at a subsequent Noontime rally held at outside the Terminal Warehouse on February 24. 

“They are betraying us — and that’s why we need to be heard all the way across this country to the shores of California,” State Senator Ramos, chair of the Committee on Labor, told workers. “What CalSTRS is doing…what PIMCO is doing is not right. What we need to do is make sure all of these projects are being built union. That we’re investing in and respecting the workers who do such a dangerous job.”

The annual “Deadly Skyline” report from NYCOSH [New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health] once again, notes just how dangerous that job really is — especially for nonunion immigrant communities and people of color. 

“We cannot afford to lose our family members because the rich want to cut corners on safety because they want to steal wages — because they see a Black and Brown workforce as disposable,” the state senator said.

Alba, the anti-union outfit hired to perform demolition work at the Terminal Warehouse, also refused to comment when contacted about State Senator Ramos’ charges. 

“They can ignore me all they want — I’m not going away and neither is this problem,” the State Senator told LaborPress in an email. “Whether they comment or not doesn’t change that this is a worker betrayal.”

Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine is calling the behavior of CalSTRS and PIMCO hiring “low-road” contractors who block unionization and deny employees safe working conditions and proper compensation packages — “outrageous.”

“Last week was outrageous, what they have done since is truly shocking,” he said. “The workers who bravely stood forward to point out those conditions have now lost their jobs — shame on PIMCO. It’s immoral, it’s probably illegal and we are going to call it out.”

The unions have filed charges of unfair labor practices at the National Labor Relations Board [NLRB].

Fired Alba demolition employee Diego Peña said that he and his co-workers were told there was “no more work” for them after they spoke out at the earlier Feb. 17 rally.

Joe Scopo, organizing director for the Laborers Union’s Cement and Concrete Workers District Council 16, reemphasized at the February 24 protest that nonunion workers are not the enemy — greedy developers are. 

“It’s time we take this city back from the greedy developers that are trying to kill your future,” he said. “Today, the rally is ending — but our class war against greed will never end until workers are treated with respect and dignity. Worker power makes companies rich — don’t make us poor in the process.”