Workers at Condo Strike Over Pay and Protective Gear

More than a dozen residential workers at a luxury condominium at 75 Wall St. in the Financial District went on an unfair labor practice strike Monday morning because they say the condo board has unilaterally changed their paid time off practices and is disregarding their safety by not providing adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union reports.

Workers said their employer has violated their labor rights by repeatedly changing their paid time off policies, effectively limiting employees’ ability to take time off during the pandemic. Workers are also trying to negotiate an agreement that would give them the industry standard wages and benefits that the vast majority of residential essential workers in the city receive. Even as the porters, doormen and concierges at 75 Wall St. have taken the additional protective precautions that have become standard in the industry, the workers at the Financial District building have said that they have received inadequate and inconsistent supplies of PPE, putting at risk residents, themselves, their families and others coming to the building.

Workers at 75 Wall St. say that three years after they voted to be represented by 32BJ, the condo board has still failed to reach an agreement with them, which would give them access to the wages, health and retirement benefits and on-the-job protections enjoyed by 35,000 unionized residential workers in the city.