A top New York City labor official has warned that wages and living standards for union members across the city will be threatened if unions do not do more to help raise income of the nonunion workers in the city. Ed Ott, the executive director of the New York City Central Labor Council, advised that the plight of the city's working poor could make union workers' wages and benefits too costly, giving the city "social base for an attack on our own standards". Mr. Ott's remarks were well-received by other labor leaders who agreed that labor's mission overall should be to raise standards for all workers, not just those within a particular field.
See "Labor Needs to Improve Conditions for Nonunion Workers, Official Warns", Steven Greenhouse, The New York Times, June 22, 2008