The New Yrok Times reports - “For months, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has been eager to stand beside labor leaders and contractors to announce projects that would employ thousands of construction workers. News conferences were scheduled first for April 16 and then for Wednesday.

But those dates came and went, in part because many powerful developers balked, threatening to tell anyone who asked that the soon-to-be-announced “project labor agreement” between builders and construction unions, with labor givebacks, was worth far less to developers than what was claimed in a press release. Further, they said it would probably not lead to a new burst of construction….

The agreement, which claims to cut project costs by “an average of 16 to 21 percent,” is all but finished and a news conference still expected. More than a dozen projects have lined up to participate. But, developers and bankers say, that does not necessarily mean that any of them will proceed. The matter has become an object lesson in the intricate dance steps of New York politicians, real estate executives and union officials…”

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