Earlier this month, volunteers with The Worker interviewed a construction worker whose union has been holding daily pickets since the first week of 2025, along with occasional post-work rallies outside of Empire State Realty. The rallies, which draw around 100 workers feature chanting, speeches, and Scabby the Rat inflatables. The union is demanding that the company cut ties with contractors who hire non-union labor, which drives down wages and safety practices across the board.
Tell us about the current struggle – what are you fighting for?
What my union is fighting for is union jobs. We want them to hire unionized workers because we want a decent wage, safer working conditions, to be respected as a human being, not be treated as an animal. We want every job in NYC to be union. [Empire State Realty] was union, and all of a sudden, they want cheaper labor.
What role do you see elected officials playing in the labor movement?
They’re all full of shit. They tell the [union] leaders what they want to hear. The [union] leaders are the fat cats. They’re making all the money and then it trickles down to us [workers] and they try to, you know, brainwash us. I’m not big in politics, I never was, but I’ve started to pay a little more attention. [Politicians] are fat robbers. They don’t fucking care. There’s no way in this world you should be able to be a career politician. All that does is give you a license to steal. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. I mean, it’s simple. I go to work every day and break my ass; I still can’t afford eggs.
What do you see as the trajectory of the current struggle?
I feel if it continues going the way it’s going, the labor movement is gonna be crushed by all these big corporations. Because let’s just say, hypothetically, I make $100 an hour. You know, these big corporations are gonna go, “All right. We’re gonna hire guys to do it for $50 an hour.” And there’s so many people struggling right now that they’ll do it. So, if things really don’t change, we’re in big trouble. I personally feel that to make change, you have to cause chaos and havoc. A lot of people are scared of that. I feel that’s the biggest problem right now.
You mentioned that now when deciding on tactics, the precedent is to first take advice from lawyers. Can you say more about that shift?
When I got in it was 2001. If there was a nonunion job and a guy crossed the [picket] line, there might have been a little scuffle and you really didn’t worry about it. Or, if you wanted to shut New York City down the unions got together; the leaders organized it, and it happened. Today, it’s gotta go through lawyers. Listen, I love lawyers, but they’re the biggest shysters. All they really want is for a guy like me to get into trouble. This way they could come and defend me. That’s all they’re there for.
Today, people are afraid. “Oh, you’re gonna get in trouble.” Listen, if me spending two, three days in the tombs affects what a company does for the next 20 years, I’m the winner. That’s how I look at it.
Where would you like to see the movement headed?
Well first, all the trades have to come back together. You know, we were under building trades, and every union was involved in it, and then people started breaking away from it. And now you have division and now everybody’s just worried about themselves and when that happens, the whole thing crumbles. You need some guys that aren’t afraid to get down and dirty. I’m not saying I want to walk into a building and start beating people up. But you have to make the owner [of the company] feel it where it hurts—in the money, in his pocket.
How would you like to change labor organizing?
I would love to go to every local and speak to these guys. Listen, if you don’t get tight, it’s over. It’s that simple. If people don’t see that the writing is on the wall, they’re blind. It’s just more power in numbers. If I came to your job by myself, you would probably laugh at me, correct? Serious, right? If I came with, I don’t know, two thousand guys, you’d be like, “Oh shit, we got a problem.”
Do you have much say right now in the tactics that your union is using?
I have zero say. Because, the lawyers, the lawyers, the lawyers. I don’t wanna hear that shit. I put my whole heart into it 100% because I feed my family. I was able to have a child. I put her in college. You know, vacations once a year we used to do. We don’t do anything like that now because it’s all falling apart. So, like I said, I got a couple more years. I go to these rallies just to show some of these new guys, there’s old timers that care. But again, you saw it, what was there, 75 people? Noisiest city in the world. People walking by us like we weren’t even there. It just disappoints me. Some of these guys that are in [union official] positions, they’ve been around for a lot of this stuff and I feel they don’t care. They’re in the office, cushy jobs, they’re making their money, withdrawing a second pension. I just don’t understand how you forget where you come from. You weren’t always a fucking boss. You used to wear boots just like me, my man, slinging the concrete.
Photo: Union rally outside Empire State Realty in New York City.
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