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Q&A
Commissioner Leila Bozorg discusses ULURP reform and job quality with SEIU Local 32BJ
0:51:29
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165 sec
Commissioner Leila Bozorg questions SEIU Local 32BJ representatives about their concerns regarding ULURP changes, noting that many proposed changes aim to bring citywide perspectives to local projects and could result in more housing, including affordable housing, which would mean more jobs for their members. Kaitlyn Schuster responds that while the union is interested in job creation, it is also focused on ensuring those jobs are good jobs with fair wages and benefits.
Schuster explains that ULURP has been a crucial avenue for the union to engage with developers on large projects to ensure workers benefit from the financial gains of those developments.
Leila Bozorg
0:51:29
Hey.
0:51:29
Thank you both for your testimony.
0:51:31
I'm curious if you could talk a little bit more about the specific concerns of, you know, finding and and first
Kathryn Wylde
0:51:37
of all, a lot of
Leila Bozorg
0:51:38
the changes to ULURP that I've proposed are not really upending ULURP in any really significant way.
0:51:44
It's about kinda trying to bring citywide perspectives into, maybe hyper local, projects or decisions.
0:51:51
And I think the end result of of providing kind of citywide or borough wide perspectives on projects could be more projects getting built.
0:51:59
So and especially more affordable projects, which would mean more work for your members.
0:52:05
So I'm a little bit curious how how to square what the goals here ultimately being about creating more housing and more affordable housing, which ultimately will create more jobs with the concerns of having a process that goes efficiently faster and ultimately trying to address the housing crisis.
Kaitlyn Schuster
0:52:28
Yeah.
0:52:28
I would say that we recognize that all of these things are sort of in this messy tension.
0:52:36
And I think where where where I'd like to sort of highlight is that, like, we we are interested in job creation, but we also are interested in, you know, the opportunity to make sure that jobs that are created are good jobs.
0:52:49
And I think ULURP has been a place for us where we're able to ensure that big projects that go up in the city and and that the developers that benefit from big up zonings, Like, our our developers that are benefiting from something that the workers who will be employed at those sites will get to partake in, you know, the financial gain that those developers see.
0:53:11
And I think, you know, we we recognize that those big projects are much different from the small projects and medium sized projects, which are, you know, for which ULURP is cost and time and resource prohibitive at this point.
0:53:24
I don't know if there's anything you'd wanna add, Sarah.
Sara Penenberg
0:53:30
Just wanna add the point that our members are able to be a voice for their, you know, public and their representation.
0:53:39
And so ULURP gives them the possibility to have that voice in this decision process, and then also for them to see, like Caitlin was saying, good projects with credible commitments from developers.
0:53:50
It also is a really great pathway for us to educate developers and newer developers about what a union is, what property service work is, what the standard wages are, and what family sustaining benefits and wages are, and also for them to learn about programs such as 45 x and things like that.
0:54:09
So I think that that's a really important important part of the process when it comes to these approvals.