Empire State Building's management company hiring non-union contractors, union says

Local 79 sets up daily protests, inflatable rats outside Art Deco landmark

A fat cat, a pig wearing a top hat and five rats. All seven inflatables faced the 34th Street entrance of the Empire State Building last Thursday, two weeks into a protest by members of Laborers Local 79 who rallied, hundreds strong, in the afternoon shadow of the props.  

The union members were there to voice their anger at Empire State Realty Trust, the holding company that manages the Empire State Building, whose officials, they say, have engaged in a lengthy pattern of hiring non-union contractors for various types of work within the building. According to Local 79 officials, the contractors pay their workers substandard wages and don’t provide them with similar benefits afforded union laborers.