Issa pays $46,844 demanded by NLRB
The British owner of Buffalo’s Statler Towers met Monday’s deadline to pay fines tied to a series of federal labor law violations.
Bashar Issa, the Manchester, England- based developer who started, then stopped, a $100 million makeover of the historic Statler, made a $46,844 payment to the National Labor Relations Board on Monday.
“I can confirm he has met the deadline and is current on his payments,” said Rhonda P. Ley, legal counsel for the NLRB’s Buffalo office.
Issa and his BSC Development Buffalo LLC reached a settlement agreement with the labor agency in May, which carried a total of $78,384 in fines tied to a series unfair labor practices at the Statler. Issa and his firm were accused of firing, demoting and abusing workers doing interior demolition at the Statler in retaliation for their decision to unionize as members of Laborers Local 210.
He was also charged with refusal to bargain in good faith with the newly formed union.
Issa missed two payments under the agreement, spraking an NLRB ultimatum to get caught up or face payment in full and further legal action, including seizure of his U. S. assets.
Under the agreement, Issa was required to pay $39,192 within two weeks of inking the final agreement, followed by $7,652 by June 19, but neither payment was made.
He remains obligated to make four additional monthly payments of $7,652, with the next payment due on July 19. All of the payments will be distributed to the affected workers.
As Issa comes current on the NLRB settlement, the remaining two laborers performing demolition/rehabilitation work at the Statler have been laid off.
“As you know, BSC is going through a slowdown in work,” Issa wrote in a July 1 letter to Local 210 attorney William Trezevant. “While we
await financing and approval from state and local government, we must halt our construction efforts at the Statler Towers.”
BSC, which hired nearly 30 workers last summer to perform demolition work on several unoccupied floors of the 18- story Statler, had trimmed its work force to 12 by early April. On April 11, Issa furloughed 10 laborers.
In his letter, Issa also confirmed he is having difficulties obtaining a visa to travel to the United States.
“At the present time I am awaiting my travel documents to be returned by the [U. S.] Embassy,” Issa wrote.
The developer canceled a May trip to Buffalo citing “a family emergency.” He failed to show for two June bargaining sessions with Local 210, indicating he was having visa problems.
Local 210 has filed several new charges with the NLRB over Issa’s failure to meet with the union, along with other allegations tied to worker treatment and working conditions.
Issa, who proposes to overhaul the Statler into a mix of hotel, office and residential space, has halted projects in Buffalo and in Manchester due to cash-flow problems.
A June 30 story in the Manchester Evening News indicated he is working on a $240 million (U. S.) funding deal through a London-based broker to jumpstart his largest British project. A local representative said Issa continues to seek a private funding source for the Statler project, in addition to some $20 million in state and federal Historic Tax Credits.
Issa also remains under investigation by the British Health Safety Executive in the August 2007 death of a construction worker at one of his Manchester project sites. He had faced a June 20 HSE deadline to bring all of his work sites in compliance with safety regulations.
That deadline was waived because Issa is “no longer carrying out construction work” at any of its properties.
