In case of fire, squeeze through the window in the judge's chambers, jump to safety below—and hope the roof of a parked car breaks your fall.

The Queens County Courthouse staff added this improbable escape route to its growing list of problems since a major construction project began last May.

Jackhammers pound relentlessly, making computer keyboards dance and data entry—and concentration—impossible. A pipe burst, collapsing the ceiling onto a clerk's desk and flooding an office.
Data Recording Assistant Sharon Coit had enough. She called Local 1070.

"I had to yell into the receiver over the construction," she said. "We were knee-deep in water, the building was falling in around us and we were expected to work."

Local 1070 members keep the courts running by pulling records and updating court calendars and files. But for the last five months, the building has been getting a new roof, air conditioning system and boilers. Seventy-five members have been working in a demolition zone.

Then a monster 170-ton crane toppled into the courthouse July 15, injuring a worker and the crane operator, "Management should have contracted for the work to take place at night, when staff and the public are not around," said Local 1070 President Cliff Koppelman. "They should have relocated the staff from the beginning."

As construction continues, DC 37 and Local 1070 are chiefly concerned about employees' safety and the air quality and noise levels. Asbestos test results have been negative.

"The only concession management offered is we don't have to worry about a dress code," one worker said, "while the building is falling on our heads."

Progress to improve working and safety conditions came only when Local 1070 threatened to take members out of the dangerous work area.

After meeting with the union, management relocated some staff to the Queens Civil Court next door.
Still workers return daily to the seventh-floor Record Room, where documents that date back to the 1800s are kept, to spend hours pulling files amid broken concrete and leaky ceilings.

"The current conditions are not acceptable," Mr. Koppelman said. "We'll do whatever is necessary to protect our members."

—Diane S. Williams