Unions: Brothers aren’t telling the whole story

WHO'S AT FAULT for the problems that have plagued the Goldtex development? Depends on whom you ask.

Several of the union men who sometimes stand around the work site, at 12th and Wood streets, said the Goldtex construction workers and security employees have tried to intimidate them.

"They come right up to us and put a camera in our faces, taking pictures of us," said one union worker who asked not to be identified.

On April 20, the day the Pestronks got their temporary injunction to keep the protesters away, the developers said union members flattened the tires of a truck delivering steel to the building and broke a windshield. But when the Daily News a few days later asked some of the workers at the site about the incident, the union members said the delivery truck had pinned four workers against the fence.

The union worker also said the videos that the Pestronk brothers post online don't tell the whole story. He alleged that one of the Pestronk employees had pushed a union member to the ground before the union member is seen walking up to a security worker and slapping him.

"One day there were like five [union] guys down there bannering the job and about 18 guys came off the job and surrounded them. One of the guys was a 60-year-old man who had to go to the hospital later," the union man said. He said the older worker may have suffered chest pains.