NEW YORK -- New York City crane operators have averted a strike that could have halted work at World Trade Center sites and a new Basketball arena in Brooklyn after negotiations went down to the wire.
Louis Coletti of the Building Trade Employers Association said two unions representing crane operators, excavators and maintenance engineers agreed on a new contract late Thursday, less than two hours before their contracts expired.
New York Building Congress said a strike would have threatened $10 billion in unionized construction projects. The trade association says construction spending is down 25 percent from its 2008 peak and a strike would have come at the wrong time.
Construction industry now employs about 30,000 fewer people and employment is at a 13-year low, the group said. Yet summer is typically one of this industry's busiest periods.
Many labor contracts expire this summer and New York City employers have focused on work rules though the city's unionized construction workers are highly paid. Work rules, for example, can require extra elevator operators or a standby worker in case a crane breaks down.
According to the New York Building Congress, New York City's electricians earn $83.81 an hour in wages and fringe benefits, more than their peers in Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago. "Houston ranks at the bottom of the cities analyzed at $22.93 an hour.
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