Property owners and managers in New York City are warning residents of potential strikes from service employees as labor negotiations continue without resolution. The four-year collective bargaining agreement, which covers about 30,000 workers across 3,100 residential buildings, expires April 20.
According to Bisnow, the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations (RAB), which represents building owners and managers, met with the Service Employees International Union’s local 32BJ several times hoping to come to an agreement. The cost to an employer in wages and benefits exceeds $85,000 for an average doorman or porter and $91,000 for a maintenance worker, according to RAB. The union, however, claims doormen, doorwomen, and porters make just over $49,000 a year. Bisnow reports:
“Every effort will be made to arrive at a fair contract, but we must prepare for the possibility of a strike of all employees, with the exception of your superintendent or resident manager,” Halstead wrote [last] week in a letter to residents in an apartment building it manages in Brooklyn. The company asked for residents to sign up as volunteers to sort mail and other services normally carried out by workers.
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