Gary La Barbera

Gary LaBarbera has served since 2009 as president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, an organization consisting of local affiliates of 15 national and international unions representing 100,000 working men and women in New York City. Within weeks of assuming this position, Mr. LaBarbera embarked on ambitious negotiations for project labor agreements to provide labor cost savings to advance major public and private projects at risk of stalling due to the economic recession. These efforts culminated in project labor agreements for $6 billion of public work with the City of New York and the New York City School Construction Authority that are saving taxpayers $300 million. In addition, $20 billion of private work has been brought under project labor agreements in New York City to create thousands of union construction jobs. Prior to serving as president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, Mr. LaBarbera served organized labor in several other capacities, including president of the New York City Central Labor Council, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Joint Council 16 and president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 282. Having been actively involved in the Teamsters since the early 1980s, Mr. LaBarbera served as a steward prior to being appointed as a business agent. He was one of the first members of Local 282 to graduate from the Labor Studies Program at Cornell University’s School of Industrial Labor Relations in 1994. Mr. LaBarbera is currently a vice president of the New York City Central Labor Council and a vice president of the New York State AFL-CIO. He serves on the NYC Committee on Construction Work Force and Contracting Opportunity and on the New York City Regional Economic Development Council as an appointee of Governor Andrew Cuomo. In addition to his numerous business commitments, Mr. LaBarbera has contributed significantly to many charities and educational programs, including the Cardinal’s Committee of the Laity, Jewish National Fund, Boy Scouts of America - Greater NY Council, Angel Guardians for the Elderly and Friends of St. Dominic’s. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Metropolitan Outreach Project and the Samaritan Foundation.