South Queens electeds want troubled contractor off Rockway project
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Rockaway Beach elected officials rallied with union members last week to call for the removal of contractor Joy Construction from an affordable housing development after the company failed to report an accident at the site that resulted in a worker injury. Eagle photo by Ryan Schwach
By Ryan Schwach
A group of South Queens elected officials are calling on the city to pull a private contractor from an affordable housing project in Rockaway after the company failed to notify the city of an injury that occurred on the construction site last year.
Queens City Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers, Assemblymembers Stacey Pheffer Amato and Khaleel Anderson and Senator James Sanders joined union members on Friday to call for contractor Joy Construction to be yanked off the contract to build Edgemere Commons, a massive affordable housing development in the community.
The officials say Joy, a Financial District-based contractor, has a history of violations including six recent worker deaths at their sites, and called unequivocally for the city’s Housing Preservation and Development agency to pull them off the project in favor of local hiring and union workers.
“We are demanding that Joy come off of this project,” said Brooks-Powers, who chairs the Committee of Transportation and Infrastructure in the Council. “Joy has an unfortunate track record that has seen many deaths on construction projects where they have not taken enough care and concern for the worker. That is unacceptable.”
“They may say, ‘It's not us, it's our [sub contractors],’” she said. “The fish rots from the head...There has to be a level of accountability.”
In December, Joy was given a violation and a $10,000 fine for not reporting a worker injury at the Edgemere Commons site on Beach 51st Street.
That violation detailed an injury where a worker was struck in the knee by splintered wood and needed to be taken to the hospital, which Joy failed to report.
“This is not acceptable,” said Pheffer Amato. “It doesn't have to happen twice.”
One worker currently on the project who spoke through a fence to the Eagle said he had no complaints on the working conditions at Edgemere Commons.
Construction on Edgemere Commons began in May 2022. The project is a $100 million affordable and supportive housing development, which will deliver 2,000 affordable homes, retail, community space, medical facilities and outdoor public space on the site formerly occupied by Peninsula Hospital.
Just about a year apart from the Edgemere Commons site accident, a worker on a Joy construction site in the Bronx was struck by an excavator bucket, according to a Daily News report. That incident resulted in the death of 57-year old Linden Samuel, an immigrant worker from the U.S. Virgin Islands who had two young children.
“He did the world for them. He picked my 3-year-old up at daycare after work, and they would meet my 16-year-old and have an after school snack every day,” his widow told the tabloid. “My 16-year old still didn’t cry. He can’t believe his father isn’t coming home.”
The elected officials used Samuel’s death and other incidents on Joy construction sites to argue Joy should not be trusted with completing the large affordable development project.
“We smell inequity,” said Khaleel Anderson. “The rich continue to get richer, and the billionaire developer who is developing this property is taking advantage of our residences in Rockaway, and we say no.”
“No longer will we stand inequity on this peninsula,” he added.
Anderson and his colleagues called not only for the removal of Joy, but also for replacing them with local hires and union labor.
“Projects like this are critically important to make sure that we have Black and brown businesses taking part in these contract opportunities,” said Brooks-Powers. “People from our community that look like us are getting the jobs and not just making minimum wage. People come to this job every single day, from early in the morning, they do their work and they should be able to have a livable wage.”
In December, an injury at an Edgemere construction site went unreported. The violation has led Queens officials to call on the contractor to be pulled from the project. Eagle photo by Ryan Schwach
Local hiring in particular has been a common request from officials in the Rockaways, as the small community sees an increase in development, particularly in the historically underdeveloped and underserved Edgemere community.
“We have some of the highest unemployment rates in the city,” said Anderson. “This job can be hiring local people who are certified, ready to go to work. We're not asking for handouts.”
“I need the value of our jobs and our community to be taken seriously,” he added.
Brooks-Powers told the Eagle following the rally that negotiations have been underway with HPD about removing Joy, as well as about including union labor on other developments in the future.
“We've been having conversations with HPD in terms of the type of contractors that are being selected on these projects and the concerns that we have, they have been working to share information in terms of how they hold those actors accountable, and how we're able to do that,” she said. “It's important to make sure that any projects happening in the city, especially in my district, are where we have a safe work environment for the workers that they're being paid a livable wage.”
“As someone who believes that union workforce is the pathway to the middle class, I always prioritize that and conversations that I have with developers, in terms of whether it's a union project or not, making sure that people are at a very minimum, working in a safe environment and being paid a livable wage,” she added.
As of Tuesday, there were no updates regarding Joy’s work on the Edgemere project.
Joy Construction Principal Eli Weiss did not respond to requests for comments from the Eagle.
HPD responded to inquiries but did not provide a comment on the electeds’ requests for Edgemere.
