From today’s New York Times:

Reeling from the real estate downturn in the city, construction unions and builders are edging closer to an agreement that they say will reduce labor costs and enable at least some of their projects in Manhattan to proceed despite the weak economy.

And…

Some construction managers and union officials involved in the negotiations say that the pending agreement on work rules, wages and benefits would cut labor costs by 15 to 20 percent, but not the 25 percent originally sought by builders. Many involved are loath to discuss it publicly for fear of blowing up the fragile talks with the union construction trades, all of which are covered by contracts. The carpenters and the electricians have been much more willing to bend, union officials and contractors say, than the steamfitters and the operating engineers, the highly paid operators of cranes, bulldozers and other heavy equipment.

  So, let’s get this straight: because real estate speculators drove up property prices to unsustainable levels, because prices on luxury apartments and condos skyrocketed, driven by the Wall Street bonus-driven deal-makers, who, while they were busy laying the groundwork for the economic collapse we are now living through, were bidding up prices to crazy levels, because we have had a billionaire mayor who for the past eight years cared only about encouraging more unsustainable development with a New York-accented cry to "build, build, build" (sung to the tune of the Republican demand to "drill, drill, drill")…because of all the greed-fueled mistakes of the captains of industry, regular working people have to cut their pay and benefits.

  What is wrong with this picture?