SECRETS OF UNIONS'S RAT ARMY
DO you ever wonder where those giant inflatable rats in front of non-union work sites around town come from?
It turns out the huge plastic rodents are made and sold by a Plainfield, Illinois-based company, Big Sky Balloons and Searchlights, that isn't even a union shop.
Big Sky's rats, which can cost up to $5,000, range in size from a timid 6 feet tall to a traffic-stopping 25 feet. And they're a huge hit with local organized labor.
A rep for the company says their phones have been ringing off the hook with rat-related inquiries since the rodents first hit New York streets a few years back, with individual unions clamoring to score a giant rat of their very own. The unquestioned commander of the city's blow-up rat army is Ed Malloy, president of the Building & Construction Trades Council of Greater New York.
Malloy's organization, which owns a whopping 30 rat balloons, was the first in the city to enlist the blow-up vermin and routinely lends them out to striking unions. According to Malloy, the average rat takes just 30 minutes to inflate, and can be quickly dispatched to offending work sites from strategic storage locations throughout the five boroughs.
"We can have a rat at any site in 10 minutes," he boasts.
Malloy says the vicious-looking creatures are effective attention-grabbers meant to highlight the plight of mistreated construction workers. But their noble purpose seems to have escaped certain New Yorkers.
"We had one rat that was taken into custody by police a few years back in front of the ABC Building on the West Side. When the cops finally released it we had a big party for the rat. Another time, a rat got stabbed outside a site by an upset non-union worker," Malloy tells us.
But it isn't all work and no play for the inflatable giants. One lucky rat recently traveled all the way to Florida for a little inflatable fun in the sun. Others get their 15 minutes of fame while working sites around Times Square.
Malloy says tourists pose for pictures with them, perhaps believing they're a tribute to Gotham's notorious rat population. But our real ones are just slightly smaller.