Landlords skirt wage bill, but state still imposes union scale The Business Review - by Adam Sichko Date: Friday, December 3, 2010, 6:00am EST
“It’s just another instance where we believe the state is trying to appease the unions,” says Mark Aronowitz of Omni Development.
Landlords leasing office space to the state have dodged a bill that would have made them pay union wages to janitors, window washers and other workers.
The language was removed from the bill in a Nov. 30 vote. It marks a victory for property owners—but it doesn’t end their ongoing fight with the state, the largest tenant in the Capital Region.
The state Office of General Services, which owns and manages all state property, continues to mandate what are called prevailing wages whenever it renews leases or signs new ones with private landlords. OGS is also pressuring landlords to offer months of free rent.
The state leases 18 percent of the privately held office space in Albany, Rensselaer, Schenectady and Saratoga combined. In total, it’s 5.3 million square feet, according to state data and brokerage firm CB Richard Ellis/Albany.
Over the next two months, OGS will accept bids for three new leases totaling 222,000 square feet of Capital Region office space. Each lease includes the wage mandate.
Landlords said they’re hungry for new business but face tough choices.
One option is to ignore the wage mandate and risk being disqualified from bidding. Another is to account for the extra wage costs, but cut planned profits so the bid isn’t too high.
OGS implemented the controversial wage policy in summer 2009, catching landlords off-guard. OGS is still appealing a lower-court ruling that found the policy to be illegal.
“From a total upstate perspective, it’s wrong. It’s corrupt. This is government patronizing the trade unions for being political friends. It’s so ignorant and it’s so abusive to landlords,” said Carl Paladino, chairman of Ellicott Development Co., which has one of western New York’s largest commercial portfolios.
Sort of sounds like business wants to get rich and pay workers poverty pay, exploit labor
Optimists close their eyes and pretend problems are non existent. Better to have open eyes, see the truths, acknowledge the negatives, and speak up for the people rather than the politicos and their rich cronies.
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