In May of 2009, New York City’s Construction unions agreed to The Economic Recovery Project Labor Agreement to help stimulate construction activity in the New York area. This agreement promised to reduce building costs by 16-21%, potentially creating 10,000 jobs by generating over $2 billion dollars in construction activity. A dozen delayed, stalled, or financially strapped projects were eligible to participate in the program.
Following similar guidelines of building cost reduction, on November 24th, the New York City Mayor’s office announced a new PLA Agreement that would include four public projects, totaling $5.3 billion dollars in construction costs and generating 32,000 jobs. This agreement will run through the year of 2014 and will save the city around $300 million dollars. The savings will be used for infrastructure projects that would have been cancelled due to the current economic conditions and will create an additional 1,800 jobs.
