BD Development claims officials of Local 79 trotted out the
giant rat at job sites outside Brookdale Hospital and Kings Plaza Mall in
Brooklyn, and Bank of America in lower Manhattan, to get its way.
A Long Island-based construction company is suing a trade
union for deploying a giant, inflatable rat with “menacing eyes and claws” to
strong-arm it into hiring its union’s members.
BD Development claims officials of Local 79 trotted out the
giant rat at job sites outside Brookdale University Hospital and Kings Plaza
Mall in Brooklyn, and the Bank of America in lower Manhattan, to get its way.
The suit claims BD had refused Local 79’s demands because
its employees were already represented by a different trade union, Local 621 of
the United Service Workers of America.
The giant rat was accompanied by demonstrators leafleting
and picketing against the contractor, the suit says.
In April 2012, the company won a $2.3 million contract to do
construction work for Bank of America. The union hauled out the inflatable rat
and warned a subcontractor not to cross its picket line, according to the
Brooklyn Federal Court suit.
“As a result of Local 79’s unlawful threats, restraint and
coercion of Bank of America, Bank of America demanded that (the managing agent
for the job site) either ensure that BD utilized Local 79 members . . . or else
terminated BD’s contract and hire a different company whose employees are
represented by Local 79,” the suit alleges.
BD “reluctantly” hired a Local 79 union member to work at
the site and absorbed $32,000 in additional labor costs by giving in to the
alleged threats.
BD won a $2.3 million contract in April 2012 to do
construction work for Bank of America. The union warned a subcontractor not to
cross its picket line, according to the lawsuit. Susan Watts/New York Daily
News BD won a $2.3 million contract in April 2012 to do construction work for
Bank of America. The union warned a subcontractor not to cross its picket line,
according to the lawsuit.
The suit describes a similar showdown this past April at
Brookdale. Local 79 installed the giant rat in front of the main entrance to
the hospital campus rather than the job site “with an objective to exert
unlawful pressure” on the hospital to terminate the contract with BD, the suit
alleges.
“Domenico Flavoni, BD’s owner, notified (Local 79 business
agent Michael Labate) that Brookdale desperately wanted the rat taken down and
the picketing to stop,” the suit states.
“Labate responded to Flavoni by demanding that he wanted
Flavoni to immediately hire Local 79 laborers to perform the work at the clinic
despite the fact that BD’s employees working on the clinic were represented by
Local 621.”
The operator of Kings Plaza Mall was also threatened with
the appearance of the rat, according to the suit. BD had in fact hired a
demolition company whose workers are represented by Local 79, but the olive
branch was viewed “as weakness and it just made the bully hungrier.”
BD is seeking unspecified monetary damages for its costs and
loss of profits due to being forced to hire subcontractors to placate Local 79.
Calls for comment to BD and Local 79 were not returned.
Source: New
York Daily News
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