QUESTION
Council Members Probe EDC on Local Employment Data and Opportunities
2:00:43
·
6 min
Council Members Amanda Farias, Alexa Aviles, and others probe the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) on the lack of detailed local employment data and the types of jobs available, particularly in the cruise ship sector. They express concern over the insufficient evidence of employment for community members in their districts and the need for tangible information on workforce development, job creation, and retention. The discussion also touches on the mechanisms for tracking employment through union contracts and the necessity for demographic data in regulatory agreements.
Speaker 2
2:00:43
Any of the jobs that were noted in the testimony, 20,000 jobs, I would love to hear any shred of evidence that demonstrates any community member in my district being employed in any part of this sector.
2:01:00
Does EDC provide any does it collect any data by ZIP Code, not even like individuals?
2:01:08
On these 20 I'm sorry.
2:01:10
I can't even remember.
2:01:12
Thousands of jobs in this industry in New York City.
Speaker 8
2:01:16
Thank you for the the question council member.
2:01:18
And as we have spoken before, not just about Redhook and and about Sunset Park, and and all of the EDC assets that are in your district.
2:01:32
To to to just put a fine point to your question, we do not currently have at this moment data with, like, the ZIP codes of where those folks live, we can certainly get back to you on that the same way that that we did on the Sunset Park side.
2:01:50
That said, as part of our work across the EDC portfolio, We are making strides both on workforce development and ensuring that local communities have access to our assets for job creation and job retention.
2:02:09
And so we have definitely partnered with the mayor's office on things like community hiring, and how our existing structures can be amended to assure that more community members are able to find jobs, find families sustaining jobs at the assets that that we manage.
2:02:31
And I think that part of the commitment that we have received in a long term agreement on the workforce development side gives us the opportunity to ensure that community members not only get access to the education and the training, but the also the credentials that may be needed to work in these different roles.
2:02:54
And so as as we have discussed with you.
2:02:59
We look forward to making sure that we get that right in terms of connecting your community members, council member watchers, community members to the jobs that are available.
Speaker 2
2:03:12
What what jobs are available right now?
Speaker 8
2:03:16
Yeah.
2:03:16
I will I will hand that over to to Felix to talk specifically about the roles at at your 12.
Speaker 11
2:03:25
Thank you for that question, council member.
2:03:27
So there's jobs on on cruise days.
2:03:31
Specifically for the customer agents that do the the ticketing.
2:03:36
There's also jobs with within the labor union LA that do the Steva during services, and we're working towards identifying more contracting opportunities again for local vendors.
2:03:46
And that's that's ongoing with me.
Speaker 2
2:03:48
When you said I'm sorry.
2:03:49
You said Pier 12, this is the Pier amendment.
Speaker 11
2:03:52
No.
2:03:52
Pier 12 is Brooklyn cruise terminal.
Speaker 2
2:03:53
Brooklyn cruise terminal.
2:03:54
So how many jobs did you say there were for ticketing agents?
Speaker 11
2:03:58
On a on a on a cruise ship day, there's about a 100 100 jobs through for for those services for the ticket agenting and customer service related jobs.
2:04:08
And then about a 115 union labor jobs are during Tuesdays as well.
Speaker 7
2:04:16
Sir,
Speaker 1
2:04:16
just just really quickly to just ask better, like, another way to ask this is I don't understand this.
2:04:23
Is this contracted out day by day, or is this contracted out by the terminal's long term agreement?
Speaker 11
2:04:29
The so with respect to the union work, parts of America host a contract with the labor union, which Which is the ILA?
Speaker 1
2:04:40
ILA.
Speaker 11
2:04:40
Okay.
2:04:42
With respect to the customer facing work, that's contracted by the cruise lines Mhmm.
2:04:49
On a ship call that staffing levels are about a 100 jobs.
2:04:55
And the cruise lines contract with shoreside agents.
2:04:59
There there's 2 in New York Harbor, and they provide the the staffing for for for those services.
Speaker 1
2:05:05
Okay.
2:05:05
Do we ask how regularly people like, do we have any of the data in terms of through ILA or through any of the the the networks that pull in people when necessary on who's local versus who's city wide, versus who's tri state wide?
Speaker 11
2:05:21
That's a question we've we've started asking internally at EDC, and we're we're working on
Speaker 12
2:05:27
Okay.
Speaker 11
2:05:28
Getting that that day.
Speaker 1
2:05:29
Yeah.
2:05:29
I I I hear the the the I mean, as someone that, like, has worked in job training and both unionized job training and and and aprenticeship models.
2:05:42
I feel like more times than that when folks on the outsides of those that already are not used to the stringent level of data aggregation and and creating reports to get that information.
2:05:53
It's critical that we put ourselves in that mindset every time we make either a regulatory agreement or a partnership that's created or a new initiative.
2:06:01
I mean, even here in local governance, we're creating things like community hiring or anything else.
2:06:06
It's important for us to remember that we need to know all the demographic information, which includes where people are and and things like that.
2:06:15
So thank you for entertaining my questions.
2:06:18
Sorry, council member.
Speaker 2
2:06:25
Just just to circle back.
2:06:27
Yes.
2:06:27
I mean, we we talk a lot about this.
2:06:31
The need for a real tangible information.
2:06:34
We hear, you know, $400,000,000 investment, a $100,000,000 investment coming to our communities and can't point to more than a handful of jobs.
2:06:43
And it is just utterly frustrating to continue down this path.
2:06:49
Not relegated to the ports, but just like the the massive size of the projects and to see no one in your neighborhood ever employed.
2:06:58
In any of these projects is truly infuriating.