NYC to Appeal Decision that Favors Local Union Crane Operators

November 25, 2015 – New York City plans to appeal a court decision giving power back to local union crane operators.  The years-old case centers on how crane operators working on large construction sites in the city are licensed.

 

When NYC changed its operator licensing requirements in 2012, the intent was to open competition to companies from around the country by switching from a city-administered test to a national certification test, reports crainsnewyork.com.

 

Shortly after the change, the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 14-14B, whose members include NYC crane operators, filed a lawsuit that objected to the licensing changes, which affected the city's largest construction sites. Late last month, Justice Paul Wooten struck down the city’s regulations allowing crane operators with national certifications to work there.

 

The city and real estate developers are reportedly planning to appeal on the grounds that national certification is more rigorous and that skilled operators can be found outside NYC. The union is arguing that NYC’s building environment is unique in its density and that non-local operators would put both other workers and the public at risk.

 

The Crain’s report states the judge’s decision had less to do with safety than with contradictions from the city’s Department of Buildings. In 2009, the DoB had opposed an OSHA proposal that would have required crane operators to pass a national certification test and would have allowed operators from outside the city to work locally. In 2012, the city reversed its stance when it set up essentially the same requirements on its own. The judge said that the city’s defense in the lawsuit did not explain why it had changed its opinion between its 2009 opposition to having nationally certified operators to work locally and its 2012 change in regulations that allowed it.