Manual Helps Co-ops and Condos Prepare for a Possible Strike

Negotiators for the Realty Advisory Board (RAB), which represents cooperatives, condominiums and rental building owners, are back at the bargaining table with Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, working to hammer out a new contract before the current four-year pact expires on April 20.

Adopting a hope-for-the-best-but-prepare-for-the-worst philosophy, the Council of New York Cooperatives & Condominiums (CNYC) has prepared a 21-page manual to help co-op and condo boards prepare for a possible walkout by unionized building service employees — more than 30,000 door personnel, porters, handypersons and other workers in some 3,000 residential buildings in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten island.

The CNYC manual covers the hiring of replacement workers, building security, garbage collection, volunteers and much more. A copy is available by clicking here.

https://www.cnyc.com/pdf/cnyc-strike-2022-pages.pdf

The last strike by Local 32BJ workers was in 1991. On the eve of the first negotiating session last week, RAB President Howard Rothschild told Habitat he's optimistic that negotiators will reach an agreement before the April 20 deadline. “No one knows if inflation is going to end soon," he said, "but my mood about the negotiations is very hopeful. The RAB and 32BJ have worked together for 80 years — and never more closely than during the pandemic over the past two years."