Metro

Union gets larger inflatable rat to outsize building owner’s cat

It’s a game of cat and mouse – and the rodent is winning.

A city union protesting at a Midtown construction site has erected an even larger inflatable rat, topping the blow-up cat that the building’s owner amassed to show up the union’s first rodent.

The new vermin – put up at 8 a.m. Monday across from Grand Central Terminal by members of Local 1 of the Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers union – stands at least a foot taller than the neighboring cat set up last week by One Grand Central Place’s corporate owner, Empire State Realty Trust.

“He got bigger!” BAC union member Michael Barbera, 54, joked of the 20-foot rat.





“We’re not leaving. We’re not intimidated by an inflatable balloon,” Barbera told The Post.

When the cat was first put up, it overshadowed the union’s rat, prompting the union to get an even bigger one in its labor fight that erupted with contractor MDB Development Corp. when the union got shut out of a facade-renovation job at the site.

Sources said that the cat was initially brought in by orders from top execs at Empire State Realty Trust who demanded it be “taller than the rat,” but now the company has given up when it comes to who has the bigger inflatable.

“Our friendly, pretty kitty makes humor out of an ugly symbol of one union’s protest against another union. We won’t be out there getting a bigger cat!” an Empire State Realty Trust spokesperson said in a statement.





Union members took down the first rat at about 2 p.m. Friday after the cat went up alongside it, but Barbera insisted that they weren’t chased away.

In fact, Barbera said the union is planning to get an even more massive, permit-required Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade-style rat balloon to put in the mounted inflatable rat’s place.

“We’re gonna get a bigger rat. We’re gonna apply for a permit and get one of those Macy’s balloons,” Barbera said.

The Local 1 member added, “We’re not just here for BAC. We’re here for all New Yorkers who want to work safely and have a fair wage.”

Both the cat and the rat, which are mounted side by side, block about four feet of the sidewalk from the curb.





A spokesperson for MDB Development Corp. said the company stands by its decision to hire Local 339 of the United Service Workers Union for the job.

“We are a Local 339 job, and we’ve been that for 10 years already,” the spokesperson said.

Some New Yorkers were amused by the warring balloons.

“I think they need a piece of cheese. Sit down and have a little wine,” said Nick Cluess, 62, who manages a nearby building.

Augie Harrington, 48, who works at One Grand Central Place, called it “an inflatable arms race.”





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