Side Walks - West Side Labor War

By Tom deignan

IT was 5 p.m. on a recent Saturday and Frank Ford, the manager of O’Farrell’s Restaurant and Bar at 33rd Street and Tenth Avenue, was already closing up his pub.

“There’s nobody over here after four on weekends,” said Ford, who often does not even open up his doors on Sundays.

That, of course, might change if Ford and Mayor Mike Bloomberg get their way and a new sports stadium complex is built on the far West Side.

In recent weeks, Irish business and labor leaders have thrown their considerable weight behind the controversial proposal to build the billion-dollar New York Jets stadium. 

Prominent union voices from the Irish American Building Society (IABS) to former St. Patrick’s Day parade grand marshal Ed Molloy (who is president of the Building and Construction Trades Council) have voiced support for the project, which Bloomberg sees as the cornerstone for New York City’s bid to attract the 2012 Olympics.

The pro-stadium Hudson Yards Coalition (organized, in part, by the Jets themselves) of labor leaders reads like an AOH membership list — James Callahan of Engineers Local 15, Mike Forde from the District Council of Carpenters, Brian McLaughlin from the Central Labor Council, Ed Walsh from the Ironworkers District Council, and on and on.

New York City firefighters, meanwhile, appeared in a recent TV ad in support of the project. The stadium would be built on the site of the Hudson rail yards, roughly between 28th and 42nd Streets on Manhattan’s far West Side.

Under the current proposal, the Jets would pay $800 million for the stadium while New York City and state would chip in $300 million each. A whole slew of other improvements would be made. 

As Ed Molloy noted in a recent statement, “The railroad pits will become a new sports and convention center. The 7 train will be extended, new office space and more affordable housing (will be built).”

But beneath the surface of Irish solidarity on the stadium issue, a conflict has emerged between heavily Irish building and municipal unions. While firefighters are featured in pro-stadium ads, the union representing firefighters is actually opposed to the project.

“The Uniformed Firefighters Association is against the New York City taxpayers subsidizing $600 million to build a West Side stadium for the New York Jets,” UFA president Steven Cassidy said in a statement.

Police union leader Patrick Lynch went so far as to acknowledge the labor rift when he spoke out against the proposed stadium.

Last month, appearing at a pro-stadium rally in Manhattan, Lynch said, “We understand and respect the position of our fellow trade unionists.”

Lynch, however, added, “We believe that not all construction is good construction, and that the West Side stadium is the wrong idea at the wrong time. The city should be investing money in its police department and paying its police officers a competitive salary to keep fully trained and experienced officers on the job.” 

The police union, like the Uniformed Firefighters Association, supports the expansion of the Jacob Javits Center. 

The source of police and fire opposition to the stadium stems, in part, from the unions’ long-standing battle with Mayor Bloomberg over pay raises. Though money for pay hikes and capital projects such as the stadium come from separate parts of the city budget, it is not likely that cops and firefighters will budge anytime soon.

The question, then, seems to be this — which unions have more political muscle these days? And will Mayor Bloomberg’s inability to swing raises for cops and firefighters help sink the stadium?

At stake is a project which — according to supporters — will create thousand of new jobs.

“From our perspective this is good for New York City,” IABS president Gerard McCabe told the Irish Voice.

McCabe, along with Bloomberg and other stadium advocates, say the new revenues generated by the stadium will actually allow the city to offer cops, teachers and firefighters their sought-after raises.

Opposition to the stadium project has been organized by Cablevision, which operates Madison Square Garden and which sees the new venue as possible competition. Smaller community groups based on the West Side argue the project will bring traffic, pollution and crowds to their neighborhood. 

Bloomberg and city officials acknowledge that traffic and other nuisances might increase. But they add that, all in all, plusses will outweigh minuses when the West Side can bid for all sorts of glitzy sporting events.

That’s all well and good. But for Frank Ford at O’Farrell’s, attracting a little more foot traffic on Saturday nights and Sunday mornings will be more than enough.

(Contact Sidewalks at tdeignan@irishvoice.com.)