32BJ, Owners Reach Tentative Deal, With Pay & Pension Increases, No Two-Tier
32BJ President Manny Pastreich is calling the tentative agreement “an incredibly good deal for both sides.” Photo/Steve Wishina
By Steve Wishnia
New York residential-building workers and landlords have reached a tentative agreement on a new four-year contract, 32BJ SEIU and the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations announced late in the afternoon Apr. 17—three days before the current contract expires.
If ratified by 32BJ members, the contract would increase wages for by about 3% a year, a total of $4.50 an hour by 2030. RAB President Howard Rothschild said that would raise pay for a porter currently making $62,000 a year to $71,000. It covers 34,000 workers, such as doorpersons, porters, handypersons, and superintendents, in residential buildings in in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island.
The deal would increase pension payments by 15%, beginning in July, and create a new training program so workers could rise to the full wage rate more quickly. It does not include a lower tier of pay and benefits for workers hired in the future, and will not require workers to pay part of their health-care premiums. It will also provide for immigration training for employers and “enhanced awareness” of legal assistance in immigration situations.
32BJ President Manny Pastreich called the tentative agreement “an incredibly good deal for both sides,” while Rothschild said it was a “win-win-win-win” for employers, the union, employees, and building residents.
The two sides looked far apart as recently as Apr. 15, when Pastreich told a union rally on the Upper East Side that “we do not have one single agreement on anything of contention.” But earlier in the day Apr. 17, Pastreich said, the RAB dropped its proposals for a two-tier contract and health-care premium-sharing, both of which union members had said were non-negotiable.
“We won this agreement because we showed that we were truly ready to strike,” Felix Figueroa, an Upper West Side concierge doorman and bargaining-committee member, said in a statement released by the union. “We conducted hundreds of strike-ready actions, we rallied 10,000 strong on Park Avenue, and we enlisted 1,400 volunteer strike captains. Thanks to that work, thanks to hitting the pavement, we won all our top demands.”
Rothschild said the two sides had been able to reach an agreement to mitigate increases in employers’ health-care costs because the multiemployer health fund had built up enough of a reserve to have a “health fund holiday” in the contract’s first year. That would be a temporary break or reduction in employers’ contributions.
“This agreement reflects the economic realities facing the residential real-estate sector, including the likelihood of 0% rent increases on stabilized units, regulatory overreach, and escalating operating costs for co-ops and condos,” he said in a statement. “Amid these headwinds, we are proud to have reached a fair agreement that supports both the industry and its valued workers. We thank Manny Pastreich, 32BJ, and the residential building-service workers for their constructive collaboration throughout this process.”
The two sides have been bargaining with each other for more than 90 years. The RAB was founded in 1933, and 32BJ dates its origins to an elevator operators’ strike in 1934. The last time residential-building workers went on strike was a 12-day walkout in 1991.
Rothschild said RAB had given up some of its goals because “we wanted to take care of our employees.” Pastreich said 32BJ members’ relationships with residents in the buildings where they work was an incentive to avoid a strike.
He said the union would begin sending out ballots for the ratification vote next week, and that it would take about a month for them to be received and counted.