Strike Averted, Deal Set for Doormen, Porters, Handymen & Small-Bldg Supers
Last updated 12:03 p.m. , April 21, 2010 — The Realty Advisory Board for Labor Relations (RAB) and union negotiators struck a last-minute agreement shortly after midnight, early April 21, in a deal that averts a strike by doorman and other building workers.
The four-year contract includes a wage increase that the Council of New York Cooperatives & Condominiums calls "less than 2 percent per year (wages and benefits come to 2.33 percent)" in a press release, and calls "slightly less than 3 percent" on the CNYC website.
Gregory Carlson, executive director of the Federation Of New York Housing Cooperatives & Condominiums (FNYHC) and an adviser to the RAB, specified, "It's approximately 2 percent a year: It's 1.72 percent the first year, then 1. 92 percent the second, and 2.72 percent in each of the last two years."
Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) described the "tentative four-year agreement" as providing "nearly 10% in wage increases" cumulatively through 2012, as well as maintaining "fully employer-paid family health care coverage" and keeping "pension benefits secure."
The CNYC said, "Key to this contract is the Union commitment to saving in health care costs of $70 million commencing in 2012." The New York Times reported that 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," but Carlson said, "It's more than just 'trying.' They are committed. It's part of the contract." Continue reading for more details.
The new agreement retains sick days, overtime and vacation, and increases employer contributions to health care by nearly 20 percent and to pensions by over 20 percent, according to the union.
The deal, which covers approximately 30,000 workers, according to the union, was reached at 12:10 a.m., just past the formal expiration of the previous contract. That last agreement, reached in the early morning of April 21, 2006, had contained an 8.5 percent wage increase over four years.
The tentative agreement must be ratified by the union membership and the RAB’s Board of Directors.
Mary Ann Rothman, executive director of the CNYC and one of the official negotiators, was still at the negotiations at 10:40 a.m. today, according to an assistant at the organization's office. Carlson described the negotiators' work at this juncture as "draw[ing] up language for the contract."
That contract increases salaries by $15 a week in each of the first two years, $22 a week in the third and $23 a week in the fourth, he said, at which point the average work pay will be roughly $44,000 a year, according to the Times.
In addition, said, Carlson, "Handymen get an extra $2 a week on top of that, and supers get an extra $2 a week, so they're getting [total increases of] $17, $17, $24 and $25" for the first to fourth years, respectively. Carlson notes that building superintendents or larger buildings, who supervise more than five employees, fall under a separate contract; those who supervise five or fewer fall under this.
At the conclusion of negotiations at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers in Manhattan, RAB president Howard Rothschild and Local 32BJ president Mike Fishman stood side-by-side to announce the deal, said the Times. Rothschild called the new agreement "a victory for building owners, employees and residents," while Fishman said, "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."
If it had not been averted, the doorman/porter strike would have commenced at 7 a.m. this morning.