Workforce
New NY Union Peer Network Brings Construction Suicide Prevention to Jobsites
Multi-trade effort aims to destigmatize mental health challenges and mitigate stress through risk across jobsites

Launched early March, Building & Construction Trades Council of Greater New York (NYC BCTC) President Gary LaBarbera calls the Building Trades Peer Support Network a “critical step toward treating mental health with the same seriousness as physical safety on our job sites.”
The Building & Construction Trades Council of Greater New York (NYC BCTC) aims to curb high suicide rates across New York City’s unionized construction industry with the help of 1,000 peer supporters trained in conducting discreet mental health assessments as part of its new Building Trades Peer Support Network.
Launched early March in partnership with the Worker Institute at Cornell, NYC BCTC President Gary LaBarbera said the network is a “critical step toward treating mental health with the same seriousness as physical safety on our job sites.”
He added, “Far too many construction workers are lost each year to suicide, and this initiative recognizes that protecting our workforce and ensuring they return home to their families each day also means recognizing their mental health.”
Tackling a Troubling Trend
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that construction workers are six times more likely to die from suicide than from job site-related injuries and four times more likely to commit suicide than the average American, according to 2021 data. LaBarbera says the Building Trades Peer Support Network (BTPSN) initiative is designed to combat those rates as a scalable system offering interventions while ultimately shifting mindsets around mental health.
“Through the mobilization of a Peer Supporter Network across job sites in New York City, BCTC alongside Cornell and the New York Building Foundation, is giving workers the tools to look out for themselves and each other,” said LaBarbera.
The New York Building Foundation contributed around $125,000 toward the BTPSN’s conceptualization, including $55,000 delegated for program design and an additional $70,000 for ongoing curriculum development and training.
Jobsite ‘Eyes and Ears’
The Peer Support Network will operate under an established Advisory Committee comprised of MAP directors, BCTC staff, Cornell faculty and a clinician who will meet monthly to monitor, evaluate, and refine the program, explained LaBarbera.
BTPSN’s peer supporters do not provide any form of direct support services or therapy for at-risk co-workers but are trained to be “eyes and ears on the jobsites” LaBarbera explained in comments to ENR. As fellow construction workers and union members across trade disciplines, peer supporters will assess and refer individuals who need help to the appropriate resources and any kind of leave or time off will be determined on a case-by-case basis and in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement.
Gaining Support
At a national level, construction leaders have also thrown their support behind efforts to address high suicide rates in the construction industry, including the launch of the CEO Advisory Council last year, hosted at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, including C-suite executives from Bechtel, Fluor, Turner Construction, North America’s Building Trades Unions, Kiewit, Clark Construction and Skanska.



