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FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com DECEMBER 17, 2015 • THE COURIER SUN 23 for breaking news visit www.qns.com DECEMBER 17, 2015 • times 13 oped  PROTECT OUR A LOOK BACK CONSTRUCTION WORKERS NOW!  BY CITY COUNCILMAN RORY LANCMAN A recent New York Times investigation into the horrible and tragic increase in construction deaths and injuries over the past two years revealed some shocking fl aws in our system for keeping workers safe. There were 10 construction fatalities in the last fi scal year, almost double the previous average. Seven more workers have died in the past fi ve months. These were hard-working men, most of whom called Queens home. These men are being failed by real estate developers and construction companies that would rather make a quick buck than take the time to protect workers and ensure they receive the proper training. We cannot allow our construction boom to come at a cost of workers’ lives or health. That’s why I’m calling for swift passage of the OSHA Notifi cation Act, legislation I introduced to require the Department of Buildings (DOB) to notify the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of construction violations that can potentially endanger workplace safety. Too often, communication breakdowns between the DOB and OSHA have devastating consequences. My legislation will get these agencies to talk and cooperate to stop dangerous construction and prevent accidents before they turn into tragedies. The DOB has promised that it will work with OSHA on a more proactive basis to enhance both agencies’ enforcement strategies, but promises aren’t enough. We need DOB/OSHA collaboration codifi ed into law. The horrifi c increase in construction deaths also highlights the need for New York City to support projects where workers have union representation to assert their safety rights. As reported by the Times, the deaths usually involved smaller projects that used nonunion workers. New York’s construction unions ensure that all workers on union job sites are appropriately trained and informed of their rights, and are protected from retaliation when they assert their rights to a safe workplace. As we look to increase the construction of affordable and senior housing in our city, the city should encourage unionized workplaces, with developers and contractors who actually care if their workers make it home to their families each night. The current rate of construction deaths is unacceptable. Allowing the same bad actors to continue building will only increase the problem. Lancman represents the 24th City Council District, which covers all or parts of Kew Gardens Hills, Pomonok, Electchester, Fresh Meadows, Hillcrest, Jamaica Estates, Briarwood, Parkway Village, Jamaica Hills and Jamaica. As an Assembly member, he chaired the Subcommittee on Workplace Safety. This 1952 picture shows the Gulf service station at the corner of Cooper Avenue and 70th Street in Glendale, at one time owned by a George Johnson. The station is long gone, having been replaced by a McDonald’s restaurant several decades ago. Drivers, however, continue to fi ll up their vehicles at the Mobil station located across the street at the corner of Myrtle and Cooper avenues. We want your historic photos of Queens! Email them to editorial@queenscourier.com, or mail them to The Queens Courier, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361. All mailed pictures will be carefully returned to you! letters & comments MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE ISN’T A LIFE SAVER I am getting sick and tired of activists, columnists, politicians and others complaining that minimum wage jobs cannot support a family. I know this may sound cold but it is reality: minimum wage jobs never were intended to support a family. Minimum wage jobs have many purposes. Among them are to allow high school students to earn spending money; to allow college students to earn spending/tuition money; to introduce high school graduates to what it’s like to work; and, most of all, that this particular job is not what you want to do for the rest of your life, and should inspire them to learn a marketable skill. In addition, I just want to point out that recently I heard that NYC is looking for lifeguards who will be paid approximately $13.50 per hour, which is less than the $15 per hour that activists are “demanding” for fast food workers. No one is standing up for the wouldbe lifeguards (I am not a lifeguard myself, so this is not a self-serving letter). In order to become a lifeguard you must undergo a 40-hour training course, learn CPR, and demonstrate physical ability via a swim test. In addition, when you are working you are responsible for the lives of the swimmers at your location. Why would anyone choose to be a lifeguard with more responsibilities and less pay than a fast-food worker? Lifeguard training and work used to demonstrate to college and high school students that hard work does pay off, but now why bother when you don’t have to work hard? Thomas Murawski, Glendale GIVE NON-VIOLENT INTERVENTION A CHANCE Regarding Ed Horn’s understandably emotional pro-war letter in the Dec. 3 issue: Another endless war against a small group of Islamic extremists is certainly not an answer, and will serve as their recruiting tool. After 15 years of militaristic folly, we need to pursue rational peaceful solutions to enhance our security. It rests on the core principle: do no further harm. Terrorism will survive war; people don’t. Shortly after attacks in Paris and Beirut, President Obama defended his “war on terror,” in which Washington funnels millions worth of weapons to its proxies in Syria, and engages in an air war totally unauthorized by Congress, and said ISIS was contained. As the civilian death toll rises and the refugee crisis grows, the U.S. war on terror continues to fail, because you can’t bomb terrorism out of existence. As governments in Moscow, Paris and Beirut are learning, you put your own people’s lives on the line when you try. Instead of a cry for more war, the tragedy should be a moment to reexamine assumptions that have enmeshed us in a war that we cannot win, and should not continue. Military intervention has succeeded in horrifi c damage and killing people, but it’s done nothing to wind down the greatest factor fueling the rise of ISIS: Syria’s long, bloody civil war. An international arms embargo and a deal between the Assad regime and other rebel groups — diplomacy, not drones — would go much further toward curtailing the threat of ISIS. We certainly have the ability to dry up ISIS’ funding by not buying their cheap oil; and stop the pipeline of arms and funding from our “allies,” especially Saudi Arabia. Military intervention serves to incite further resistance, as we learned so well in Vietnam. In proposing to pour more fuel on the fi re, war hawks show an absence of imagination, which is typical of Western statesmanship when it comes to the Islamic world. Simply trying harder is not a basis of policy; it’s past time for the West to consider something different. Robert Keilbach, Flushing FOR MORE NEWS VISIT QNS.COM


RT12172015
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