NYC Construction Continues In A Pandemic: "I Currently Do Not Feel Safe"

Many businesses have shuttered and New Yorkers have been ordered to stay at home under Governor Andrew Cuomo's PAUSE plan to slow the spread of COVID-19, but the city's 150,000 construction workers are still considered "essential" under the governor's order and must still report to work.

"I currently do not feel safe at my job site. There is no way to practice the CDC guidelines," an electrician working on a building in the Financial District told Gothamist. "Social distancing [and] proper sanitation are next to impossible while working construction. Especially doing indoor work, which a lot of high rise projects are," said the electrician, who asked us to withhold their name to protect their job.

"Fortunately, I’m young and healthy, and so are all of my roommates. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about many other people in the trade," the electrician said. "We already work in one of the most dangerous fields in the city and this just compounds it."

Last year, the Department of Buildings began cracking down on unsafe construction sites by doling out violations during surprise inspections. But it's unclear if the DOB has issued new rules for construction sites during the COVID-19 pandemic, or if they are even tracking the number of positive cases at construction sites.

A spokesperson for the de Blasio administration told The CITY news outlet that they were giving "guidance" to sites, but that they wouldn't shut any down if they reported that a worker tested positive for the new coronavirus, which happened recently at Facebook's offices at 770 Broadway.

One subcontractor explained that while there was widespread displeasure with Cuomo's guidance that allows for construction, it is impossible to not work and break contracts with massive, deep-pocketed real estate developers.

"They're still building the luxury high rises, but there's no way for us to not work because then we're in violation of contract, and they can crush you. They've got hundreds of billions of dollars. Just going into litigation with them would kill you," said the subcontractor, who asked us to withhold their name to protect their business and their workers.

"They have one bathroom facility every three floors or whatever, and there's almost never soap in any of them," the subcontractor said, describing a typical arrangement on a large corporate construction site. "Then there's all the guys on the ground who have Porta-Potties who don't have hand sanitizer, and then these guys who have no sanitation, no hygiene, are getting on a train or a bus with medical workers."

The subcontractor added, "And where are we gonna get PPE [Personal Protection Equipment]? Obviously we are not the people who should have the N95 masks right now."

Asked to explain the ongoing construction work on Sunday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said construction was being "constantly assessed" and that workers who feel sick should stay home.

"But, right now, the State guidance—and this is true in California to the best of my understanding, it was certainly true in San Francisco, but the guidance was to continue that work because it is outdoors, because clearly any part of the economy can still allow people to have a livelihood that's so important as we see so many other people losing their livelihood, and because a lot of what is constructed obviously is crucial to our future," de Blasio said. "You and I would agree that luxury condos are not the priority in this city, but there's a lot of other things being worked on that are important because we will come out of this crisis and we will be playing the long game."

The Mayor's Office and the DOB have not responded to our questions.

Last week, the city's union contractors and the Building and Construction Trades Council issued a two-page guideline for union sites that includes handwashing stations, hand sanitizer, and limiting the numbers of workers in confined areas.

"As much as we possibly can, New York must maintain some level of economic activity, especially when it comes to ensuring that our middle-class workers continue to receive wages and benefits that sustain their livelihood, and that of their families," said the Building Trades president, Gary LaBarbera, in a statement.

Brooklyn Councilmember Carlos Menchaca and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams have both called for a halt of all non-essential construction work.

"The construction industry has long had an eroding culture of safety but now, by allowing non-essential work to continue, the city is putting workers, their families, and the public at acute and immediate risk," Williams said in a statement. "The Public Advocate will continue to push the administration to put in place a moratorium on nonessential construction — to take decisive action to save lives."

Even if some workers want to stay home because of the pandemic, they know they cannot, because they have to continue to make rent.

"Of course I am concerned about the virus, but right now it's about the economic need that I have," said Mario Ortega, a 31-year-old day laborer. Ortega said that he currently shares a single room in Queens with his wife and their two children, ages 7 and 8. The rent is $900.

"How I would be able to afford to pay the rent, food, to be able to eat?" Ortega said.

Ligia Guallpa, the executive director of the Worker's Justice Project, which has sponsored a relief fund for low-income workers, said that "there is a lot of frustration from workers in terms of how they can remain safe and healthy but at the same time paid during this crisis."

"There is only so much workers can do as a whole if employers are not wiling to provide paid sick leave, or shut down the worksite," Guallpa said. "It's not longer about protecting their workers it's about how their pockets have been effected."

So far, Governor Cuomo has resisted calls from lawmakers to take more drastic action to help renters, such as a rent freeze, though a bill was introduced in the state legislature to do just that.

"Of course that would help," Ortega said. "It would mean that we would be less concerned about rent and only concerned about food and our health."

The governor's office has not responded to our questions.

"We all want to work, all the people in the restaurant industry want to work," the subcontractor said. "But that's not how this goes. This is a thing where we have to sacrifice this."

[UPDATE / 7:20 p.m.] Jack Sterne, a spokesperson for the governor, sent us this statement: