The owners of more than 3,200 apartment buildings in New York City reached an agreement on a new labor contract with the union that represents about 30,000 doormen, porters, janitors and building superintendents, averting a strike that was due to begin at 7 a.m. Wednesday. þþThe talks went right up to the midnight strike deadline, as they often have in the past, with the union resisting the owners’ demands for cuts in health care and other benefits. In the end, the owners agreed to a new four-year contract that includes a total pay increase of nearly 10 percent and no significant cuts in benefits for the workers, an official with the union, Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, said. þþIn exchange, the union agreed to try to help the owners find ways to reduce the cost of providing the workers’ health benefits by $70 million annually starting in 2012. þþThe agreement headed off what would have been the first strike by the doormen since a walkout in 1991 that lasted 12 days and left garbage piling up in front of some buildings where doormen were picketing. If the doormen and other service workers had gone on strike, residents of the affected buildings would have had to perform their own chores, like sorting mail, screening visitors, hauling garbage out to the curb and operating elevators. þþAfter the agreement was reached, both sides said they had reasons to be satisfied, and loud cheers were heard through the doors of the meeting rooms in the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers, where the negotiations were held. þþMike Fishman, the president of Local 32BJ, said the final details of the contract were worked out in the last half hour of the talks. “We fought hard and won wage increases in a very tough economy, and maintained fully employer-paid family health care for thousands of hard-working people in one of the most expensive cities in the world,” Mr. Fishman said. þþDespite some sharp rhetoric, the talks never appeared to have grown too heated. Mr. Fishman and Howard Rothschild, the lead negotiator for the owners, stood side by side when they discussed the contract terms with reporters. þþ“It’s a victory for building owners, employees and residents,” said Mr. Rothschild, the president of the Realty Advisory Board for Labor Relations. He emphasized the commitment to contain health care costs in the face of what appeared to be a better deal for the union than the last contract, which raised pay by 8.5 percent over four years. þþThe new deal calls for salary increases of $15 a week in each of the first two years, $22 a week in the third and $23 a week in the fourth. By its end, the average pay of the workers will be about $44,000 a year. þþA strike would have disrupted the daily routines of hundreds of thousands of middle-class residents from upper Broadway to Brownsville, as well as affluent owners of Park Avenue penthouses. Along with picket lines in front of many of their homes, they would have been confronted with the loss of the people who sign for their packages, carry their luggage and let the pizza deliverers and dog walkers into the building. Residents of many buildings had been asked to pitch in to sort the mail, announce visitors by intercom, operate elevators and haul garbage to the curb if necessary. þþA picketing plan that had been drawn up on Tuesday afternoon called for the workers to walk out at the end of the 11 p.m.-to-7 a.m. shift and begin picketing immediately outside selected buildings. þþIn 1991, they picketed for 12 days before reaching a compromise that gave them annual raises that averaged about 4 percent. þþDuring that strike, city sanitation workers refused to cross the picket lines to collect garbage, leaving it to pile up on sidewalks until the health department declared it a public health nuisance and ordered that it be picked up. Along with the festering trash, residents of thousands of buildings had to contend with restrictions on deliveries and service calls by repairmen during the strike. They also had to perform chores that the doormen and porters usually handled, like sorting mail, operating elevators and carrying luggage. þþNew Yorkers who had to cope with that strike said they hoped not to have to endure another. Some said they and their neighbors were willing to try to handle duties themselves, but they had little confidence in their abilities to keep things running smoothly. þþIn the hours before the strike deadline, others were dreading a disruption in the don’t-do-it-yourself lifestyle of calling the super and ordering in Chinese that is particular to urban apartment dwellers. þþ“It would definitely be a big inconvenience,” said Nicole Auerbach, 36, who lives on West End Avenue. “Our doormen told me probably 50 percent of the people in our building have takeout delivered on any given night.” þþIn an effort to head off another walkout, the negotiations began in earnest on Thursday, with less than a week left on a four-year contract. That agreement had not been cobbled together until the wee hours after the previous one ran out at midnight on April 20, 2006. þþThe two sides met on and off through the weekend and all day Monday, breaking off at midnight. They resumed talking at 9 a.m. Tuesday. þþThe 30,000 union members were represented by about 60 people, led by Mr. Fishman. The owners had a committee of about a dozen, led by Mr. Rothschild. þþOn average, the union’s members earn about $40,000, or about $20 an hour, a union spokesman said. They also receive medical and dental care for themselves and their families, as well as 10 paid sick days, vacation and pensions. The owners estimated the total annual cost of employing a member of the union at more than $68,000. þþThis time, the owners argued that the recession that began more than two years ago had crimped their ability to be as generous. They cited “skyrocketing” property taxes and utility costs as reasons for demanding concessions on benefits. þþMary Ann Rothman, executive director of the Council of New York Cooperatives and Condominiums, said that for a growing number of tenants, raising the rent was not an option to cover increased labor. þþ“In co-ops and condos, we are the owners,” Ms. Rothman said. “There’s no place to go but our own pockets to find money for increases. Many of our owners have not been able to get the pay increases or bonuses this year. Some have lost their jobs.” þþBut the union countered that the city’s real estate industry had come through the recession relatively strongly, with rents projected to rise over the next several years. Their members also have to contend with the rising cost of living and cannot be expected to accept a deal that amounts to no real raise or perhaps a cut, union officials said. þ
Source: NY Times
