The litigation between the Tappan Zee Bridge builders and the company assigned to the new bridge”™s construction continues this week with oral arguments in federal court.
The case ”“ United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America v. Tappan Zee Constructors LLC ”“ was brought on by a national union of carpenters and dock builders in regards to a wage dispute between the two parties.
The union, which is affiliated with Carpenters Local 279 and Dockbuilders Local 1556, filed a complaint in early January 2014 after TZC, the consortium of designers and builders for the bridge, assigned carpenters work having to do with pile caps and pier caps. The union later reassigned the work from the carpenters to the dock builders in what TZC called a “backroom” deal in court documents.
The 400,000-hour work assignment dispute stems from the wage difference between carpenters and dock builders. Carpenters are paid $70.11 per hour, compared with dock builders that make $92.47 per hour.
Per the labor agreement between the two parties, the case went before an arbitrator in May 2014 in which a preliminary decision favored the union, but the final award was issued to the construction company.
The union petitioned a judge in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York to enforce the first award and lost earlier this year. The union is now appealing before Judge Robert A. Katzmann in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second District at 10 a.m. on Aug. 19.
TZC is involved in another lawsuit with labor groups accusing the construction company of failing to make $187,000 in contributions to union benefit funds. That trial is expected to take place in 2016.
