On April 28, 2016, hundreds of construction workers, labor leaders, and management gathered at St. Patrick’s Cathedral for the annual mass honoring construction workers who lost their lives on New York City construction sites in the past year. Since the previous Memorial Mass in 2015, fourteen of the sixteen workers who lost their lives were working at non-union construction sites. An article in The New York Times covered the Memorial Mass, the rise in construction-related deaths during the current construction boom in New York City, and the profound personal loss for the families of those killed.
Following the Memorial Mass, hundreds of workers marched to, and rallied in front of, the headquarters of non-union developer Macklowe Properties. Their message was strong and clear: union construction provides safety and labor standards that result in safer workplaces.
