Worker Protest Overwhelms Manhattan

Tens of thousands of construction workers protesting the hiring of nonunion labor by a public agency gridlocked mid-Manhattan streets Tuesday in a demonstration marred by brick- and bottle-throwing clashes with police.

Officers summoned from throughout the city used Mace to contain the demonstrators, who carried American flags and a huge, inflatable gray rat during the almost 6-hour-long protest.

At least 38 people were arrested and 22 injured, including eight officers, as groups of angry workers tried to topple barricades and break through police lines. At times, police and protesters wrestled on the street.

“The numbers in the demonstration were much larger than we anticipated,” admitted Police Commissioner Howard Safir, who estimated the crowd at 30,000. “This large group appeared very rapidly.”

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who succeeding in blocking a demonstration by angry cabdrivers earlier this year that had threatened to tie up the city, said this protest reached 40,000 at its peak.

“We are not going to tolerate this kind of activity,” the mayor pledged. “We do not appreciate police officers being injured.”

“They’re taking food from union families,” countered Joe Solano, an electrician who was one of the marchers. “We want to make sure we get the right attention.”

The focus of the protest was the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which awarded work to a New Jersey contractor that was using nonunion help to build a transit command center in Manhattan.

“We simply are required to accept the lowest bid of a responsible contractor under the state law,” said MTA Chairman Virgil Conway. “We are required to accept the lowest bid whether that be union or nonunion.”

Tom Kelly, a spokesman for the agency that operates subways and buses in the city, said portions of the contract were under scrutiny by the New York State Department of Labor.

The unions have alleged that the contractor condoned safety violations.

A spokesman for the Labor Department confirmed the company’s practices were under review, and a hearing was scheduled for Aug. 18.

Safir said that union officials appeared as surprised as police by the size and militancy of the demonstration.

In applying for a permit, a coalition of building trades unions had estimated at most 10,000 people would protest.

“The information that was given to the Police Department was that it was going to be much smaller,” the mayor said. “Had the construction workers given the same advance warning that the taxi drivers gave, they’d have been dealt with in the same way.”

Giuliani, who has made civility the centerpiece of his second term in office, succeeded in thwarting the protest by cabdrivers angered at tougher rules by having police set up checkpoints at strategic bridges and tunnels. Police turned back all taxis without passengers the morning of the promised demonstration.

The construction workers did not telegraph the extent of their anger--some of which was directed at the mayor.

At the beginning of the morning rush hour, thousands of workers gathered in front of the MTA’s headquarters on Madison Avenue near Grand Central Station. Traffic on the busy street stopped as police struggled to contain the crowd.

With their ranks rapidly growing, the construction workers--some blowing whistles and shouting, “Way to go union”--started marching cross-town to the site containing the nonunion workers.

Police, fearing clashes, scrambled to keep up with the demonstration and sent urgent calls for reinforcements. Traffic along the route halted. When the protesters reached the site on 9th Avenue, they were blocked by police in riot gear and officers on horseback, motorcycles and scooters.

Some of the demonstrators threw bottles and bricks and broke through the police lines. Police responded with Mace, and fights erupted as arrests took place.

“There were areas where certain people broke through the crowd and threw bottles,” Giuliani said. “Although the Police Department was playing catch-up, the whole group did not get out of control.”

Without warning, the demonstrators then decided to march back to the MTA headquarters. As motorists fumed, officers scrambled to close midtown streets along the line of the march.

The sight greeting workers on Madison Avenue as they emerged for lunch was startling. Hundreds of police struggled to herd the construction workers behind blue wooden barricades, as a police helicopter hovered overhead.

Again, fights erupted and Mace was sprayed as some protesters seeking to enter the building toppled barricades.

“What they did today is totally unacceptable,” Giuliani said. “What you don’t anticipate, you can only deal with when you find out about it.”

Times researcher Lynette Ferdinand contributed to this story.