NEW YORK, NY March 31, 2008 —The scheduled vote by the city council later this afternoon on congestion pricing suggests that the proposal to charge drivers to enter the busiest parts of Manhattan does have the support of a majority of council members, and even a majority of state lawmakers.

REPORTER: One factor for this turn around appears to be that a number of labor unions are supporting the bill, as Mayor Bloomberg announced this afternoon.

BLOOMBERG: I did want to thank a number of labor leaders for coming together to help urge the city and the state lawmakers to enact congestion pricing legislation

REPORTER: The support by the AFL-CIO and retail, construction and custodial unions came after the Mayor agreed to guarantee that all employees working on projects funded by congestion pricing would get paid union wages.

That increases the likelihood that those projects would be built with union labor.