Corporate Lobbyist Is Behind New Anti-Union Subway Ads in City

An ad campaign denouncing the subways as "dirty, delayed and dangerous" is taking a swipe at the construction unions.

"For years, Gary LaBarbera’s nonsensical union work rules and no show-no work jobs have hiked transit construction costs at the expense of much-needed repairs, making New York’s subway system a global embarrassment,” the spokesman for the campaign, Luka Ladan, writes in a press release.

Ladan works for the group behind this campaign, a non-profit called the Center for Union Facts. And that group is run by Richard Berman, a wealthy lobbyist known for creating non-profit organizations that have attacked groups as varied as The Humane Society, Mother's Against Drunk Driving and ACORN on behalf of corporate interests.

Ladan wouldn't disclose who was funding the anti-union subway campaign. "I have no comment on that. We don't disclose any specific donors I won't go any farther than that," he said.

"Any chance there is to go after unions, and long as someone else is footing the bills, he'll do that," Melanie Sloan, who researched Berman's activities for the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told WNYC.

The Center for Union Facts is a non-profit organization, so it doesn't have to disclose it's donors. But recent tax filings show Long Island billionaire Robert Mercer and his family have been a big backer of the group. Another non-profit his family funds, Reclaim New York, which was started by former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, also publishes articles critical of the MTA's union labor.

"This pseudo campaign is replete with lies, half-truths, and a repulsive anti-union, anti-worker agenda," said a spokesperson for The Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York in a statement. "The cowards funding this effort should stop hiding and let New Yorkers know who they are.”  

The Mercer Family Foundation did not immediately return emails for comment. Jon Weinstein, a spokesman for the MTA, said the agency is looking for many new ways to reduce capital costs, which are among the highest in the nation.

Robert Lewis contributed reporting to this story.