Building Trades Unions: We Warned City About Shoddy Labor Before Collapse


Pat Gillespie, the head of the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council, says that his unions had been alerting the city’s L&I department about shoddy demolition conditions to no avail. In an interview with WPHT’s Dom Giordano, he said the Griffin Campbell Construction demolition crew was not unionized.

I do know that a carpenter working across the street…had gone over and warned people, ‘Look, this isn’t going to work,’” Gillespie said, referring to the way the building demolition was being handled. “On a number of occasions, from what I was told, they alerted L&I about it,” Gillespie added. “They also, from what I was told this morning, had an interview with police.”

This echoes what several union members told the Daily News already:

“Never in all my years have I ever, ever, ever seen this,” said Steve Cramer, a member of Carpenter’s Local Union 122. “It was just a total disregard for safety. We [predicted] this last week. I can’t believe they allowed the thrift store to be open.”

[CBS 3]