Several unions marked Robert De Niro’s birthday Wednesday, Aug. 17, by staging a rally in front of his Tribeca Grill in Lower Manhattan to protest the “exploitative labor practices” at the $600 million Wildflower Studios currently being built in Astoria, organizers said.
Laborers’ Local 79, joined by Steamfitters Local 638 and Sheet Metal Local 28 said that while the Wildflower project has been heralded as a union-built and operated film studio, De Niro has instead allowed main contractor Leeding Builders Group to use non-union construction workers at the Luyster Creek site.
“Shame on Robert De Niro for the standards, or lack thereof, he’s allowed to continue at Wildflower Studios,” said Michael Prohaska, business manager of Laborers Local 79. “What should’ve been thousands of good, union jobs for Queens residents, is now another example of unchecked development in New York City where promises made are not promises kept. While the project is still in its early phase, Local 79 is urging Mr. De Niro to rectify the issues we’re seeing at Wildflower and honor his promises for a full union-built and operated film studio.”
An increased level of concern was raised at Wildflower in recent weeks following the mass termination of workers by a subcontractor on the job, StructureTech. On July 15, workers received an immediate termination letter from StructureTech without any notice or information on unpaid wages or the cause of termination.
“Mr. De Niro has made a career as a proud union actor whose most famous films are dear to many members of the trades,” state Senator Jessica Ramos said. “As beloved as his body of work is, we cannot excuse the irresponsible hiring and subcontracting decisions that have already harmed workers’ ability to earn family-sustaining wages. If you want your $600 million studio in Queens, if you want it built safely and on time, then you need to build it union.”
Ramos, the chair of the Senate Labor Committee joined the unions who rallied at the Astoria construction site in June. More elected officials in western Queens are now voicing their support.
“In 2020, Robert De Niro thanked his union for ‘tirelessly fighting on our behalf for workplace and economic gains, and respect,’” Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani said. “In 2022 however, De Niro and his Wildflower Studios are giving workers in my district exactly the opposite. Hiring non-union contractors with well-documented histories of violating workplace safety laws, sick leave laws, as well as basic wage reporting laws is a slap in the face to how this project was presented to us, as well as to what Astoria stands for.”
QNS reached out to Leeding Builders Group and is awaiting a response.
“New York is a union town. It wasn’t so long ago Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award recipient Robert De Niro professed support for unions and decried anti-union hostility,” Councilwoman Tiffany Cabán said. “The best time for him to prove his commitment to organized labor was at the outset of the Wildflower Studios project construction; the second-best time is right now. Mr. De Niro, there is still time to step up and salvage your reputation as a friend to the working people of New York City — don’t let it slip away. You’re either with union-busters like Donald Trump and Jeff Bezos, or you’re with the everyday working people who have loved your movie performances for 50 years. Make the right choice.”
The union members performed their take of De Niro’s classic Raging Bull with one member impersonation the screen legend squaring off against another member in a rat costume in some street theater called Raging Rat in front of an inflatable Scabby the Rat which has been used for decades as a symbol in union disputes. Organizers recounted De Niro’s remarks while accepting a lifetime achievement award from SAG-AFTRA, where he praised the union and the benefits they bring to his industry for career opportunities and consistent employment.
“Today was a good event to show the public that De Niro is not what he makes himself out to be,” Local 28 Business Rep Joe Rojas said. “If he truly believed what he said when he received that award then he would call up his partner and fix this mess.”
