The $94,000 Hardhat

In the heat of debate over labor contracts, more than one management negotiator has hyperbolically contended that some particularly rash union demand would turn the workers into millionaires. For a few fortunate union members, that is no longer a wild exaggeration--not since the New York Times uncovered the story of Tom Dowd, 39, a labor foreman working on the two 110-story towers that make up Manhattan's World Trade Center. During six years of scheduled work on the project, he stands to earn more than $500,000 in wages. Last year alone Dowd cleared $94,000, and the union of which he is a trustee, Local 14 of the Operating Engineers, has just won a pay boost. Says Dowd: "I made a good buck last year."

The reasons for Dowd's bonanza --and for an increasing number of other executive-size paychecks collected by construction unionists--are work rules that force employers to shell out huge sums in overtime pay. Annual wages of $20,000 to $40,000 for construction workers are not uncommon, particularly in and around New York City. Dowd, as a kind of union straw boss called a "master mechanic," must be kept on the job at the World Trade Center whenever three or more operating engineers are on duty. Since operating engineers run the center's nighttime machinery, as well as all the cranes, bulldozers and hoisting equipment, three or more union members are on duty virtually all the time. And whenever three or more of them are on overtime, Dowd also collects overtime pay, no matter how few hours he has actually worked up to that time. Last year he knocked down $76,000 in overtime, plus his base wage of $18,000. That means he was earning doubletime pay of $20.90 per hour for an average ten hours of every day of the year.

Dowd's job often is not particularly taxing, and his private quarters at the site are equipped with a bed and a refrigerator. He is primarily a liaison man between the contractor and the team of operating engineers. By his definition he is a "labor mediator." Paul Richards, head of New York State's building chapter of Associated General Contractors of America, sees Dowd's job in a slightly different way. Says he: "The 'master mechanic' is nothing but a walking steward, and I think if you look at other major projects in New York State you will find the same thing."

Sky-high paychecks like Dowd's probably pose less of a problem than the aggregate of less outrageous but still grossly inflated wages paid to workers throughout the $110 billion construction industry. Yet Dowd's semi-millionaire status is an example of needless expense that will be passed on in turn to the World Trade Center's owner (the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey), to the buildings' tenants and ultimately to the public. The cost of the Trade Center, originally projected in 1964 at $350 million, has steadily increased; including some work not planned on then, the total bill is now estimated at $700 million.

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