Local 138 of the Operating Engineers Resigns From the Nassau Suffolk Building Trades Citing the Need for Construction Unions to Embrace 21st Century Strategies to Achieve Its Objectives

FARMINGDALE, N.Y., May 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Bill Duffy, Jr., president of Local 138 of the Operating Engineers today announced that the Local has resigned from the Nassau Suffolk Building Trades, citing a decision by its Board of Directors to "chart a new course that depends on tactics and strategies that recognize organized labor is now well into the 21st Century."

Duffy stated the decision comes on the heels of their support for the modified Avalon Bay proposal in Huntington Station and their pledge of cooperation for construction of Heartland in Islip Town. "In both of these instances the Nassau Suffolk Building Trades Council has adopted positions counter to our own and, we believe, organized labor as a whole. Profane rhetoric and inflated rats at a job site will not enhance the debate in how best to build on Long Island in the 21st Century. We need to follow a new, progressive course of action if organized labor is to be relevant to our region."

Local 138 is among the founding members of the Public Works Alliance (PWA) which Duffy says will play an even larger role in the months and years to come as it creates strategies that make use of social media and other information options that connect the construction trades to public policies determining the pace of development in towns, villages and our two counties.

Duffy continued, "PWA was formed last year in part because there was a growing recognition that the traditional means by which the construction trades have politically expressed themselves for almost a century doesn't work anymore. The evidence is there in record unemployment among our construction trades. In addition, union projects are down across the country while the Long Island economy is moribund. Opposing projects like Heartland and Avalon Bay won't get the construction trades to where we need to be in restoring union jobs. How do we participate as a full partner in getting the political approvals needed to jump start infrastructure projects and major new development?  For us the answer lies beyond the Nassau Suffolk Building Trades."

SOURCE Local 138 of the Operating Engineers