Union Leaders Should Be the ‘Driving Force’ Protecting NYC Public Housing, IBT Local 808 Head Says
IBT Local 808 Secretary-Treasurer Chris Silvera [r] joins Johnnie Stevens and other members of the Chelsea Public Housing Coalition at last weekend’s Labor Day Parade in New York City.
By Joe Maniscalco
When public housing residents living in the Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses marched in this year’s New York City Labor Day Parade to highlight the impending destruction of their homes, IBT Local 808 Secretary-Treasurer Chris Silvera and other members of his local marched with them.
“To destroy public housing for fancy development is antithetical to the labor movement and antithetical to what we stand for, and that's why we provided the space for [FEC residents] to march in the Labor Day Parade [with us]. We stand in solidarity with them,” Silvera told Work-Bites this week.
Short of the tens of billions of dollars it says it needs to properly maintain and repair its stock of public housing, the New York City Housing Authority [NYCHA] continues to pursue “public-private partnerships” with developers under RAD/PACT [Rental Assistance Demonstration and Permanent Affordability Commitment Together]—two programs New York City Council Member Chris Banks [D-District 42] last summer called a “get rich scheme” and a “scam” to “profit off the poor.”
Mayor Eric Adams, however, celebrates the “public-private partnerships” and says they’re all part of the way his administration is “rewriting the future of public housing across the city.”
In Chelsea, that means giving the green light to Related Companies and Essence Development to spend the next two decades bulldozing the Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses and replacing them with six new towers up to 39-stories tall—and as many as 10 additional buildings all packed with an overwhelming majority of so-called “market-rate” housing for the rich.
Local tenants—including elderly residents living in the Chelsea Addition on W. 27th Drive who stand to lose their Section 9 housing protections—have already been given vacate notices and told they can return to their new apartments in about four years.
“We have a dilemma in New York City around affordability—and when you displace people what is their future?” Silvera continued. “There is a lack of genuinely affordable housing—and not the fake thing where rent is $2,500 or $3,000 a month—something that’s reasonable for people who might be living on a pension or might be in low-wage jobs.”
The Chelsea Public Housing Coalition argues that NYCHA’s existing housing stock can be improved and renovated for working class families, retirees, and people with disabilities while also creating good union jobs in the process.
It is urging other labor unions in addition to Local 808 to help fight the ongoing privatization of NYCHA by mobilizing their members, passing resolutions opposing demolition and displacement—and speaking out.
Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses tenants opposed to NYCHA’s plan to demolish and “redevelop” their homes march in last weekend’s Labor Day Parade on 5th Avenue.
In 2018, Related Companies waged an ugly and relentless union-busting campaign at nearby Hudson Yards against the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York [BCTC] and its President Gary LaBarbera, charging them with allegedly violating a signed Project Labor Agreement [PLA].
Among other allegations, Related also accused the BCTC of driving up construction costs, violating safety standards, and even doing “irreparable harm” to its own members.
Work-Bites reached out to the BCTC to get its take of the fight FEC tenants are waging against Related’s plans for Chelsea, but a spokesperson for the union declined comment.
“Because of what happened in Hudson Yards, they should have been on top of this battle in Chelsea to push against Related,” Silvera told Work-Bites. “That would have been my posture if I was a Building Trades guy.”
Last week, Community Board 4 officially came out against Related’s plan to demolition and redevelop the Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses and urged a vote by the tenants living there.
Residents opposed to Related razing their homes say their elected officials—Council Member Erik Bottcher [D-3rd District], Assembly Member Tony Simone [D-75th District], and State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal [D-47th District]—are all failing to represent them.
“You need somebody that's going to be solidly on the side of the working class,” Silvera said. “That’s why Eric Adams failed. That's why Andrew Cuomo would fail the working class—they're going to side with Related because when they're no longer in office that's where they're going to be sitting on boards, or appointed to that thing, or whatever. Then they will collect their money on that side of the fence.”
The Public Housing Coalition plans to take their fight to Council Member Bottcher’s doorstep at 415 W. 24th Street on Saturday, Sept. 13. Protesters are expected to gather outside the Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses at noon.
“We are your Post Office workers, your bus drivers, your cooks and cleaners, your security guards, nurses aides—we take care of your children,” Queens NYCHA resident Brenda Temple told Work-Bites at an anti-RAD/PACT rally in Manhattan last year. “Don't we deserve a quality of life?”
Silvera insists more labor leaders need to be supportive of the fight hard-pressed public housing tenants are waging against displacement throughout the city.
“I come from the side [of the labor movement] that believes that we are a movement—and that we serve a greater purpose than just simply getting a contract or providing a pension or health coverage—that we need to fight for something that gets the 99% a better deal,” he said. “[Union leaders] should be the driving force behind protecting public housing and other forms of support for lower levels of the working class who are retired or just working in lower-wage jobs.”
IBT Local 808 represents building services workers around the city, as well as Metro North workers, and public sector workers on Long Island.