A federal judge ruled in favor of the company building the new Tappan Zee Bridge in a dispute with a national union over roughly $7.3 million in wages.
Tappan Zee Constructors LLC, the consortium designing and building the bridge connecting Westchester and Rockland counties, won its case to employ construction workers for about 400,000 hours of specific formwork at a rate of $70.11 per hour rather than assign dockbuilders, who make $92.47 per hour, to that work.
The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, affiliated with the Carpenters Local 279 and Dockbuilders Local 1556 unions, filed an appeal on April 1.
The dispute began on Jan. 7, 2014, when Tappan Zee Constructors assigned the carpenters formwork from the top of the pile caps to the pier caps and on all columns including the main span tower forms, according to the union”™s petition.
About a week later, the union filed a jurisdictional dispute about the assignment of the work to the carpenters. By April 7, the union said it had reached an agreement and that the dockbuilders would take on the column and pile and pier caps formwork originally assigned to the carpenters.
Tappan Zee Constructors called this a “backroom” deal in its response to the union”™s petition and accused the reassignment of tasks from the carpenters to the dockbuilders ”” the latter makes about $20 more per hour than the former ”” an “attempted $7.3 million fraud on New York taxpayers.”
J.J. Pierson was appointed as the arbitrator, which is required by the labor agreement between the two parties, and on May 4 Pierson awarded a preliminary decision in favor of the union. On May 13, Pierson changed his mind and issued a final award to the construction company, saying he had “not fully considered” the arguments.
The union then took Tappan Zee Constructors to U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York, petitioning a judge to enforce the first award. The judge affirmed the arbitrator”™s final decision, and the union filed an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second District. The next scheduled court-related conference will be held May 26, when all parties will participate in a preargument teleconference presided over by a court mediator.
The union and the bridge-building company declined to comment on the case.
