Workers, Construction and Higher Ed Unions, Demand Apollo Global Management Respect Worker Rights
A group of workers,unions including LiUNA Local 79, CUNY’s Professional Staff Congress (PSC-CUNY), St. John’s University’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors (SJU-AAUP), and the NYC Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO rallied against worker mistreatment outside of Apollo Global’s Manhattan headquarters.
Apollo Global is partnering with RXR on the office-to-residential conversion project at 5 Times Square, which will transform the 39-story office tower to 1,290 housing units. 25% of the new units are slated to be earmarked as affordable housing, and the group argues that many of the workers constructing the project are paid substandard wages too low to afford to live in the building once the conversion is completed.
“I worked as a construction laborer for a non-union body shop at 5 Times Square and jobsites around New York City, I was making close to minimum wage,” said construction worker William White. “It was difficult to survive and support my kids. I asked the company for a raise multiple times but I never received one. I had to rely on Medicaid even though I was working full time. I was afraid to lose my job because of my incarceration history. Construction laborers at 5 Times Square should be treated with the dignity they deserve and should be paid just wages with benefits.”
“5 Times Square is one of the largest office-to-residential conversion projects in the city, yet Apollo Global Management and RXR allow construction workers to be paid low wages with no pathway to retirement,” said Anthony Vita, Business Manager of LiUNA Local 79. “We’re here to put Apollo and RXR on notice that it’s time to do right by NYC workers whose skill, hard work, and dedication build this city.”
“I am proud to stand in solidarity with LiUNA Local 79, St. John’s AAUP, PSC-CUNY, and the NYC Central Labor Council to call on Apollo Global Management to uphold New York City labor standards,” said NYC Council Member Virginia Maloney. “Construction workers at 5 Times Square and any site in our city should be treated fairly. New York is and will always be a union town.”
“Fighting corporate greed in this town invariably leads to low-road actors like Apollo Global.” said NYC Central Labor Council President, Brendan Griffith. “From construction workers to university professors, Apollo CEO Marc Rowan has shown a fundamental disrespect for working people. We’re calling on Apollo and RXR to pay community standard wages at 5 Times Square, and on Rowan to stop participating in the unscrupulous attacks on higher education. In a union town like New York City, this is simply unacceptable.”
“St. John’s University’s President Father Brian Shanley OP is trying to eliminate the unions of over a thousand full-time and part-time faculty. In February, Shanley suddenly declared, mid-contract negotiations, that he can’t bear the ‘burden’ of ‘being entangled in a collective bargaining relationship,' which has existed since 1970,” said Sophie Bell, acting president of the SJU-AAUP chapter. “His move is disturbingly aligned with the anti-student, anti-higher education, and anti-worker playbook of Trump and billionaire Mark Rowan, CEO of Apollo Global Management. Looking at the university board of trustees, at least one has a direct link to Rowan's firm: James E. Galowski, a senior partner at Apollo. The billionaire's-first agenda of Rowan has no business at our student-centered, catholic Vincentian university. St. John's faculty stands with our union siblings at LiUNA. The dignity and well-being of workers and students always come first, not billionaires."
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