Atlantic Yards Ground-Breaking

BY Erin Durkin and Bill Hutchinson
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Ready to dig in are Forest City Ratner CEO Bruce Ratner, Mayor Bloomberg, Gov. Paterson, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Jay-Z and Barclays president Robert R. Diamond

Pomp overshadowed protest Thursday as ground was broken on the future home of Nets  - the centerpiece of the controversial Atlantic Yards project.

Marching bands and speeches from politicians and dignitaries drowned out demonstrators ringing what is to be called the Barclays Center, for the bank that bought the naming rights to the 18,000-seat sports arena.

"I can't believe I'm standing here today," said developer Bruce Ratner, whose six-year battle to build the project has been buffeted by the economic recession and resistance from businesses and Brooklynites being displaced.

"Today is a great day for Brooklyn," Ratner said.

A large white tent was erected on the site where Atlantic Ave. intersects with Flatbush Ave. to accommodate hundreds of supporters, who enjoy smoked salmon hors d'oeuvres - and Junior's Cheesecake.

"This really is such a huge win for the Nets. It's just a shame it doesn't count in the standings," Mayor Bloomberg told the crowd.

Organizers prepared 70 silver shovels for the event.

Bloomberg was joined by Ratner, Gov. Paterson, Barclays Bank President Robert Diamond, Borough President Marty Markowitz, Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Rev. Al Sharpton and rapper and Nets co-owner Jay-Z in breaking ground.

A protest outside the site drew about 200 foes of the project, who countered that the construction will doom Brooklyn.

"I hearby proclaim March 11, 2010, the destruction of Brooklyn's soul day," said a protester wearing a Markowitz mask.

One protester was arrested for disobeying a police order to stop pounding a drum.
Demonstrators briefly blocked traffic on Atlantic Ave. until cops dispersed them.

The new arena, set to open in 2012, is part of the $4.9 billion Atlantic Yards Project, which includes 16 residential and commercial towers.

Construction Unions Rally At WTC Site

Members of the city's construction unions spent their lunch break today rallying at the World Trade Center site – hoping to break the stalemate between developer Larry Silverstein and the Port Authority. (Video)

Thousands of carpenters, iron workers and laborers were joined by elected officials and local residents in an effort to demonstrate they are ready to build two more office towers at the site.

Construction is already underway on the centerpiece of the site, One World Trade Center, as well as a memorial and transit hub. But work on the other planned towers has stalled.

"Let me finish by once again pleading with our partners on this job to sit in a room, lock the doors, don't eat, don't drink and come up with a solution that will benefit everybody," said Lou Coletti of the Building Trades Employers' Association.

"It is a disgrace that nine years after this attack we are still looking at a hole in the ground," exclaimed City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. "That we are still fighting this fight."

"All of us have let you down. We've let this city down. And we've let our country down," said Congressman Joseph Crowley. "And we've left a hole in the ground to remain as a monument to those who would destroy our country."

It's not only the workers and elected officials who are frustrated by the lack of progress, but also Lower Manhattan residents. Julie Menin, the president of Community Board 1, was on hand for the rally. She issued a statement earlier today saying the site continues to be a "hole in the heart of the community."

Silverstein wants the Port Authority to finance at least two of the three towers.

An arbitration panel set a deadline for Friday for an end to the fight between the two. If no solution is reached by that time, the panel could impose a solution of its own or give both sides some more time to sort the situation out.

FIRTH DEFEATS DEVEREAUX

The Local 608 presidential election of 2010 will be considered by most members as the greatest election upset in Local 608 history. Virtually every prediction indicated that incumbent Martin Devereaux would easily defeat Joseph Firth's Members Choice Slate.

“History was made at Tuesday's March 2, Special Election; at 395 Hudson Street when almost two thousand rank and file members voted and tossed out Martin Devereaux’s incumbent slate, Firth’s supporters said.

Devereaux, vice-president of Local 608, was named acting president on August 10, 2009 after it and 10 other locals were put under emergency supervision by the International following the Forde indictment.

On August 5, 2009 the feds charged District Council of Carpenters boss Michael Forde and nine others, including two mob associates, with taking bribes to let contractors cheat workers of wages and benefits.

Devereaux replaced Local 608 president John Greaney, who resigned the position and is one of the defendants in the Forde federal indictment.

In June 2008, Devereraux and Forde beat a the rap in a case charging they took bribes from a man linked to the DeCavalcante crime family, the mob that inspired the hit HBO series "The Sopranos."

The two were convicted in that case in 2004, but a Manhattan Supreme Court justice tossed the conviction because some jurors had read news accounts of the case.

The pair was acquitted after a second trial in June 10, 2008.

Firth supporters say he won the election by framing the issues on the heavy handed tactics used by UBC International Supervisor Frank Spencer.

Spencer was brought in by the International Brotherhood to supervise the district council in the wake of Forde's indictment.

Spencer made no secret of his support for Martin Devereaux, naming him business manager of Local 608 and firing Joe Firth as business representative for alleged violations of the job referral rules and trashing his reputation in a November 18, letter to 608 members.

Firth’s supporters re-acted with anger to Spencer’s letter and were very vocal at the regular schedule November 608 meeting, forcing Devereaux, in a letter to the membership, warning the members to “act professionally or Spencer will dissolve Local 608.”

This seemed to anger the many Firth supporters even more, the only ones who got on board with Spencer’s "threat to dissolve the local" was Devereaux and his Slate as they were continually heckled and shouted down at each meeting.

Firth and his slate turned the election against Devereaux into a struggle for union democracy, a cry for freedom and a greater voice in running local affairs without the heavy hand of Spencer and the UBC.

Firth still has some obstacles to deal with, he has allegedly been brought up an chargers and the trial board found him guilty with the recommendation of expulsion from the UBC.

Firth is appealing the decision, while the appeal is pending he remains in good standing and president of Local 608.

Also elected with Firth was business rep. John Daly, vice president,  Levi Messinetti and Mike Fitzgerald, trustees and twenty UBC Convention Delegates.

Goverments Response To Haights February 1, Order

2010-02-05 Memo Re Conference

Haight Vacates February 10, Hearing

2010-02-08 -- District Council Order Canceling Hearing

The Great Recession: Will Construction Workers Survive?

By Kevin O'Leary

The middle and working-classes have been hammered by the Great Recession and no industry has taken it more on the chin than construction. Nationally, unemployment fell to 9.7% in January, but in construction it jumped to 24.7% from 18.7% in October. In many regions, union officials report 30% of their members are unemployed or "riding the bench." "In the previous 14 years, I had not been out of work for more than one week," says Pat O'Connor, 57, a Connecticut carpenter. With no work since July, O'Connor says, "It is a bad dream turning into a nightmare. Is construction dead? It's just horrible right now. No one expected this. It's a depression." He has a mortgage and is worried he will fall behind and lose his condo. "When I go to bed, I keep the TV on just so I have the noise. If it gets silent, I get a panic attack."

Commercial construction workers are in a bind. Before, if work dried up in Boston or Seattle, carpenters, electricians and plumbers would pack up and go to Las Vegas or Texas or Alaska. "Now there is no work anywhere," says Mark Erlich, whose New England Regional Council of Carpenters represents 22,000 union members in six states. "The largest problem is the continued lack of financing," says Jerry Rhoades, executive secretary treasurer of the Florida Carpenters Regional Council. "In the summer of 2009, there were 800 jobs on the books to build across the state. We do commercial, high-rise residential and power plants. The permits were ready, but the financing dried up. I am in my 60s and I've never experienced a downturn like this. Three years ago, three contractors would bid on a project. Now 90 contractors bid on a project. That is how desperate people are."

In the Southwest, the construction site is what the factory floor is to the MidWest — the place where blue-collar men and women earn their keep. A tour of downtown Los Angeles and the industrial warehouse area to the south finds busy jobs sites few and far between. In Vernon, Oltmans Construction Co., ranked as one of the nation's elite "Top 400 Contractors" by Engineering News Record, is completing a gleaming white 60,000 square foot warehouse and office space for CR Lawrence whose business is construction, industrial, architectural and automotive supplies. Ed Sorbel, superintendent for Carpenter's Local 630, says at the project's peak more than 70 men worked at the site. But the outlook is grim for commercial construction firms such as Oltmans and its union work force. Asked if business is picking up, Oltmans Project Manager James Wu, 37, says, "I have not seen it. It's not looking good ahead."

General Foreman Javier Gonzalez, 50, wearing a red bandana and an orange Oltmans T-shirt, says, "I was only out of work for two months in '09." Other carpenters were not so lucky. Gonzalez says his laid-off colleagues are paying their bills in a variety of ways. "One guy is doing tattoos. Some guys are bartending. And there is a group who work for realtors cleaning out foreclosed homes. They empty everything that is left in the house, resell what that can salvage and do minor repairs. It's sad. There is no work right now. Here we are in February and we've only picked up one job this year. In four weeks when this job is done, I'll be out on my ass."

Local 630, based in Long Beach, has 400 carpenters in the field with Oltmans when business is strong, says Sorbel, the union's top man on the Vernon project. "We are trying to keep our core guys, 125 to 150 men, busy. But there is no work out there." Miles Davy, a burly asphalt subcontractor, says there have been massive layoffs across all sectors of the construction trades. "I've had to let go men I have known for years. Grown men crying in my office. It's the saddest thing I've ever done."

In downtown Los Angeles, just east of Little Tokyo, one of the only active construction sites is a 53-unit apartment building at Alameda and 4th Street. Valentin Marquez, 41, father of four, does foundation and concrete work. Before this job he says he was out of work for a year. He is now struggling to keep his house. "The company I worked for for 18 years went bankrupt," he says. His colleague, Alonzo Chavez, 34, worked for the same contractor and then took a job in a burrito factory at minimum wage. Both non-union men, hands gray with concrete dust, know this job will only last another two months. "This year looks rough," says Marquez as he sits in the cab of his blue GMC pickup truck.

In the Northwest, the contraction in commercial construction came late, says Eric Franklin, spokesperson for the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters. "We're at the bottom now." Across a membership of 26,000 in 42 locals in five states unemployment ranges from 21% to 35%. One bright spot: a few big public projects on the horizon, including a floating bridge that will connect Seattle to its suburbs. "It's a mess," says Erlich in New England. "The private sector is dead. We're at the point where we are considering investing money from our pension fund in construction projects. We either need another stimulus focused on job creation or the banks must be directed to lend."

North America's largest building-trades union, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters is a half-million members strong. For tens of thousands of its members, and the millions of Americans who depend on the construction business to make a living, it is a winter of anxiety and discontent. Tim Ahern of Carpenters Local 210 in Fairfield, Connecticut sums up the plight of the construction trades across the nation. "I only worked 20 hours the whole year in 2009."

Pension Plan Funded Status

Pension Plan Funded Status

Haight Orders Hearing, Possible Termination Of Callahan

Breaking News... Judge Haight has ordered representatives from the district council and federal goverment to attend a hearing on Wednesday, February 10, at 1:00pm, to discuss rumors of the possible termination of Independent Investigator Bill Callhan.

Union members are encouraged to attend this hearing at 500 Pearl Street, room 6a.
2010-02-01 -- Memo & Order Re District Council, 90-Cv-5722[1]

We Need Jobs Now

John Ballantyne Joins the NYC District Council of Carpenters

Frank Spencer, Supervisor of the NYC District Council of Carpenters has appointed John Ballantye as an Assistant Supervisor of NYC District Council of Carpenters. John’s role will entail serving as co-chair of the Grievance Committee and serving as a team member with the Anti-Corruption Committee.

John and Assistant Supervisor Peter Thomassen will work together on all New York City District Council functions. Until December, John served as Assistant Executive Secretary Treasurer and Northern/Central Regional Manager for the New Jersey Regional Council of Carpenters.

John’s vast knowledge serving as a regional and statewide Director of Organizing and local community boards will be an asset to the NYC District Council of Carpenters. Prior to his leadership roles within the UBC John served as Foreman and Superintendent for several large contractors in Northern New Jersey. He has been a member of the UBC for 27 years.

Delegate Meeting Report From Supervisor Frank Spencer

Delegate Meeting Report

New District Council Website

Check out the new look of the New York City District Council Of Carpenters website.

Joseph Roxlyn Jewett Pleads Guilty to Giving Kickbacks to Carpenters' Union Boss

For Immediate Release
United States Attorney's Office
Eastern District of Michigan
Contact: (313) 226-9100

Joseph Roxlyn Jewett, of Las Vegas, Nevada, pleaded guilty to giving a kickback to the former leader of the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters (“MRCC”), United States Attorney Barbara L. McQuade announced today. The former union boss had engineered the use of Jewett’s company as a consultant on a deal involving the construction of a casino that was funded by the Carpenters Pension Trust Fund.

During a hearing before United States District Judge Arthur J. Tarnow, Jewett admitted that in May 2006, Jewett promised to give Walter Ralph Mabry a one-third interest in an $800,000 investment. Mabry was the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Carpenters Pension Trust Fund and Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the MRCC. Jewett promised Mabry the one-third share of the $800,000 investment because Mabry had asked the investment manager of the Carpenters Pension Trust Fund to use Jewett’s company, J&R Ventures, as a consultant on a pension fund investment in a casino in Biloxi, Mississippi that had been wiped out by Hurricane Katrina.

Based on his guilty plea and conviction for giving a kickback to a fiduciary of a labor union pension fund, Jewett is facing a maximum of three years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Based on calculations under the United States Sentencing Guidelines included in the Plea Agreement, Jewett is facing a sentencing guideline range of between 18 and 24 months in prison. Jewett also has agreed to forfeit $157,000 in funds derived from the kickback scheme.

McQuade was joined in the announcement by FBI Special Agent in Charge Andrew Arena, James Vandenberg, the Special Agent in Charge of the Department of Labor, Office of Investigations–Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations, and Regional Director Paul C. Baumann of the Employee Benefits Security Administration.

Andrew Arena, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation said, “Embezzling union resources and accepting kickbacks systematically robs union monetary assets and decreases benefits to all members. The FBI will continue to aggressively investigate these cases with our law enforcement partners."

James Vanderberg, Special Agent-in-Charge for the Chicago Regional Office of the United States Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General said, “Pension related kickback schemes by consultants to union affiliated benefit plans compromise the retirement accounts of union members. This office will work aggressively with our law enforcement partners to investigate crimes that undermine the financial well being of these pension funds.”

The case was investigated by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General–Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations, and the Employee Benefits Security Administration. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney David A. Gardey and Assistant United States Attorney Phillip Ross.

AFL-CIO Head Urges Paying For Health Care With Tax On Rich

By Corey Boles

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The head of the largest group of U.S. labor unions urged congressional lawmakers to support an excise tax on the rich to pay for sweeping health-care legislation, saying that a tax on generous health-care plans would "drive a wedge between the middle class and the poor."

Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, said in a speech Monday that lawmakers should implement the proposed payment method outlined in the House version of the health-care bill, rather than that in the Senate version that would tax so-called "cadillac" health-care insurance plans.

"The tax on benefits in the Senate bill pits working Americans who need health care for their families against working Americans struggling to keep health care for their families," he said. "This is a policy designed to benefit elites."

Trumka spoke at the National Press Club in Washington D.C., shortly before he went to the White House for a meeting with President Barack Obama. He said he would raise his concerns at that meeting.

Toward the end of his remarks, Trumka was cut off by the moderator of the panel, USA Today reporter Donna Leinwand, after he ran over the allotted time.

The White House has said it favors a tax on generous health-care insurance plans to pay for the expansion in care.

Labor unions oppose the proposed Senate tax for the health-care overhaul because they say many of their members, who have traded higher wages for more comprehensive benefits packages, would be penalized by it.

Trumka said the labor movement would continue fighting for the House version of the legislation until a bill is signed into law. The House bill would levy a surtax on couples with incomes of $1 million a year or more and individuals with incomes of $500,000 or more.

House and Senate Democratic lawmakers are locked in negotiations over their differing versions of the health-care bill. One of the key differences is how to pay for the several-hundred-billion-dollar measure to extend health-care insurance to people who can't currently afford it.

Trumka also called on lawmakers to create an independent consumer financial regulatory body as part of an ongoing overhaul of the regulatory framework for the industry. The effort to redesign the regulatory landscape of the financial system is held up in the Senate where lawmakers are trying to reach a compromise on how to proceed.

The question of whether to create a new agency with a specific mandate to protect consumers is one of the major outstanding issues in those talks.

He also said Congress should impose a tax on financial transactions to fund federal government efforts to create jobs in the private sector. This proposal appears to have largely fallen out of favor in Congress, not least because it could lead to a competitive disadvantage for U.S. financial firms, unless the levy was implemented by other countries as well.

Trumka predicted that legislation allowing workers to organize labor unions more easily, dubbed "card check," would be passed in the first quarter of 2010.

The bill has been one of the highest priorities of the labor movement under the Obama administration. It has been stalled in Congress because it isn't clear that it has enough support in the Senate.

Welcome Back Jawin

Brothers and Sisters the popular Jawin discussion forum is back in operation.

An Open Email To Supervisor Frank Spencer

To Frank Spencer
From John Musumeci
Subject: Disbursement of Assets

Dear Supervisor Frank Spencer,

On December 11, 2009 members of the New York City District Council of Carpenters received a notice from the Board of Trustees (below) stating that a disbursement of $269.39 will be added to members Annuity Plan account. The notice says this disbursement of assets is from “unclaimed funds”.

Many members have contacted me regarding this disbursement and would like a more detailed explanation of these “unclaimed funds”.

Can you please provide answers to the following six questions:

What was the total amount of “unclaimed funds” disbursed to members?

What period of time do these “unclaimed funds” represent?

How long have these “unclaimed funds” been inactive?

Why are these funds unclaimed?

What efforts were made to restoring “unclaimed funds” to their rightful owners?

How were these “unclaimed funds” discovered?

Thanking you in advance for your cooperation regarding this matter.

John Musumeci
Local 157
Annuity

Yonkers Pol Sandy Annabi Charged With Corruption in Ratner (Atlantic Yards) Project

By Ward Harkavy

Yonkers Democratic pol Sandy Annabi and two others were charged today with conspiracy, bribery, and extortion in connection with the startling reversal in 2006 of Annabi's opposition to a Forest City Ratner project in Westchester County.

Forest City Ratner, currently trying to ram Atlantic Yards down Brooklyn's throat, is unnamed and unindicted and unmentioned by specific name even in the U.S. Attorney's official statement.

But the case centers on its controversial Ridge Hill development. (Indictment here; "Developer No. 2" is Forest City Ratner.)

Annabi had led the opposition to the project, blasting Forest City Ratner as "probably richer than God" and "robbing the city blind." But in July 2006, with the project imperiled, Annabi, who was on the Yonkers City Council, suddenly dropped her opposition to it. The feds say she was bribed.

They're whooping it up over at Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, which points to Norman Oder's piece at Atlantic Yards Report detailing Forest City Ratner's alleged role: FCR supposedly gave one of the conspirators, GOP muckety-muck Zehy Jereis, a consulting contract after he supposedly got Annabi to change her mind about the Ridge Hill project.

All suspects are innocent until they're proven guilty or unless they somehow wriggle off the hook. Except for the New Jersey Nets, the condemned property owned by Bruce Ratner. The NBA team is currently 3-31, and not even eminent domain can save it.

In the Westchester case, the feds say Annabi sold her vote "for baubles and trinkets." That's standard practice for New Yorkers: In 1626, Peter Minuit purchased Manhattan from the natives for wampum worth about 60 guilders. Some say that was about $24, others $72. As Straight Doper Cecil Adams points out, "There are some who would contend that $72 or even $24 for Manhattan was not such a hot bargain. These people are mostly Republicans."

Denis Sheil, A Great Union Leader Retires? You Decide...

On Friday November 20, 2009 Page Six had this posting:

"WORD is...Denis Sheil had an unlucky Friday the 13th. Seems the federal government would like to ask the former "Unity Team" partner a few questions. Sheils however is not in the talking mood, he advised his lawyers that he would have to plead the fifth if questioned. Sources say district council lawyer Gary Rothman advised Sheil to use his sick time and retire. Dennis was spotted last Friday cleaning out his desk."

It has been well documented at the UBC Hearings, both Pete Thomassen (salary $268,827) and Denis Sheil, (salary $253,500) among other things, turned a blind eye to contractor corruption and failed to protect our financial interest, yet these two men remained in positions of power. Why?

With the retirement of Sheil (rumored to collect a yearly pension over $200,000) on December 31 2009, Pete Thomassen, who Page Six is reporting will be fired, is the last remaining member of the disgraced "Unity Team".

Reprinted below from The Carpenter, winter 2009

Scan

Spencers Supervision Update

Below is a letter from Frank Spencer regarding the supervision of the NYC District Council. It is reprinted from The Carpenter Magazine, winter 2009 issue.
Update

Page Six

We hear... THAT assistant supervisor Pete Thomassen will be fired this week. Sources say the feds have subpoenaed district council financial records for the last three years and are paying special attention to Thomassen’s credit card and travel expenses. Sources also say Supervisor Frank Spencer has hired Jack Mitchell and Dennis Walsh to assist him in the supervision over the district council, both men were hired years ago by federal judge Conboy...story developing.