The union representing 26,000 janitors, doormen and other workers at 1,000 Manhattan office buildings renewed its threats to strike on New Year’s Day after a negotiating session ended with little progress on Thursday.þþWith hundreds of union members rallying outside the Midtown hotel where the negotiations were being held, the union’s president insisted that the workers needed a sizable raise because New York is such an expensive city to live in. þþAt a four-hour negotiating session at the hotel, the Sheraton New York, building owners sought to persuade the union, Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, to scale back its demand for raises exceeding the rate of inflation — which was 4.3 percent nationally over the past 12 months. þþThe two sides said the session on Thursday ended with considerable differences remaining over wages.þþ“We’re making some progress, but we’re still a long way apart,” said Mike Fishman, Local 32BJ’s president. Another bargaining session was set for Friday. þþIn an interview, Mr. Fishman defended the union’s demands, noting that the workers had received raises totaling 5 percent over three years in their current contract, well below the total inflation, 10 percent, over those three years.þþ“The cost-of-living is not enough for a raise,” Mr. Fishman said. “We have some catching up to do. This is a time when working people are being forced to move out of the city because it’s so expensive. We don’t want to go from being in the middle class to the working poor.”þþIn many ways, the union and the building owners seem to be talking past each other. The union’s repeated refrain is that the city’s real estate industry, with the highest rents per square foot, is the richest in the nation. Management counters that the union’s members are the highest-paid building service workers in the nation, and have the best benefits — they do not have to contribute toward their health insurance premiums, for example.þþJames F. Berg, president of the owners’ group, the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations, said the workers averaged $40,500 a year in wages and $55,000 a year when the value of health and pension benefits was included.þþHe said that, taken together, the wage and benefit increases in the current contract exceeded the inflation rate because of unusually large contributions the building owners made to rescue the union’s health plan.þþPaul Salvatore, general counsel to the Realty Advisory Board, said the building workers have beaten the cost of living most years.þþThe building owners and the union have what is often called a mature bargaining relationship, meaning the two sides have bargained for decades, often understand each other’s perspectives and almost always resolve disputes without a strike. þþThe union last struck the city’s commercial buildings in 1996, under volatile circumstances. At the time, management was intent on securing a lower starting wage for new hires, while Local 32BJ’s president, contemplating a run for the presidency of the parent union, wanted to flex his muscle. þþ“We’re in extraordinary times when they’ve made extraordinary profits,” Mr. Fishman said. “Two diametrically opposed things are happening. Our members are being squeezed while the industry is getting wealthier. That means that even with a mature relationship, this is going to be a difficult negotiation.”þþReal estate officials in New York acknowledge that their industry is thriving, but worry about giving generous raises when the nation faces a possible recession and the real estate business in much of the nation has stumbled.þþ“It’s true that we get the highest sales price per square foot, but that means the people we’re dealing with paid the highest per square foot,” Mr. Berg said. “That makes it harder for them to pay substantial increases.”þ
Source: NY Times
