NYC building workers vote to authorize strike as contract deadline looms

The dispute pits 34,000 doorpersons, superintendents, porters and other building service workers against the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations over proposals that would require workers to pay health insurance premiums for the first time and create a lower-paying job classification for new hires — changes the union says would squeeze workers who already strain to afford living in one of the country’s most expensive metropolitan areas.

Thousands of New York City apartment building workers voted Wednesday to authorize a potential strike, setting up what could be the first building service walkout in 35 years if contract talks collapse before midnight Monday, when the current contract expires.

The vote came after negotiations between 32BJ SEIU and the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations stalled over building owners’ demands that workers begin paying health insurance premiums and accept a lower-paying job classification for new hires. The union is pushing for increased pensions and wages, though it had not yet put forward a specific wage proposal as of Wednesday.

A strike would disrupt services for an estimated 1.5 million renters, co-op owners and condo dwellers across the city, according to the union. Residents could face taking on tasks including staffing doors, sorting packages, mopping hallways, sweeping sidewalks and hauling trash.

At a rally that stretched more than four blocks along Manhattan’s Park Avenue, thousands of workers held up cards reading “YES I am ready to strike” as some colleagues watched from their posts at doorways along the boulevard.

What each side wants

The 34,000 workers — doorpersons, superintendents, porters and others — currently receive family health benefits without paying premiums, a feature the union says is essential given wages that average about $62,000 a year for doorpersons.

Union President Manny Pastreich said workers face rising costs, including rents — which he noted come from “the very same building owners who say they have to come after our health care to make ends meet.”

Building owners, represented by the Realty Advisory Board, say they face financial pressures of their own. The board cited the fact that few U.S. workers receive family health benefits without paying premiums, and noted Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s push to freeze rent on the city’s roughly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments as an added burden on property owners.

Realty Advisory Board President Howard Rothschild called for negotiating a contract that “supports a viable path forward,” adding in a statement that “without meaningful movement to address costs … the long-term sustainability of the industry and its workforce is at risk.”

Workers describe what’s at stake

Percy Jackson, a porter in Brooklyn’s East New York neighborhood who has worked in the position for 23 years, said the health benefits make the job viable.

“With everything going up in New York … if we had to pay, actually, into our medical, it wouldn’t work,” Jackson said. His work involves cleaning, trash removal and more.

Adam Cintron, a doorperson at a Manhattan building, said he hoped negotiations would produce a deal but voiced concern about the cost of living. “I love my job,” said Cintron, 39, who attended the rally with his rescue dog, Jett — a companion a dog-loving building resident helped him find. “We try to take care of everyone,” Cintron said.

Mayor Mamdani, a Democrat, attended the workers’ rally and saluted “those who maintain multimillion-dollar apartments, and yet, when they get home, struggle to understand how they can make rent on the first of the month.”

The job and what a strike would mean

The role of a building doorperson extends well beyond receiving guests. Workers manage the surge in package and food deliveries that has grown since the COVID-19 pandemic, assist residents with strollers and walkers, provide security in buildings with hundreds of residents and, in some cases, handle cleaning and snow removal. Superintendents oversee maintenance, repairs and daily operations in buildings that in some cases are more than a century old.

Some building managers had already notified residents to expect delays in renovations, moves and major deliveries and to minimize visitors if a strike begins.

The union’s last strike, in 1991, lasted 12 days. In subsequent years the union has voted to authorize strikes at other points but reached contract deals before walkouts occurred.