New York City residents of posh condos, rent-controlled East Village apartment buildings, university faculty housing and other high-rises breathed a sigh of relief Wednesday with the news they would not have to open their own doors and take out their own trash, as a strike by doormen, porters, janitors and building supervisors was averted.
Health insurance payments and sick days were the main sticking points in negotiations between SEIU Local 32BJ and the Realty Advisory Board that could have seen 30,000 doormen walking out at midnight Wednesday. Doormen have traditionally enjoyed quality health coverage paid fully by their employer, but the Realty Advisory Board, which represents the owners of about 3,200 buildings, wanted them to pay for benefits and take fewer paid sick days.
The union ended up with a four-year contract that includes a nearly 10-percent pay raise and no change in benefits.
As often happens with labor disputes, the threat of a strike shined a light on one of the many largely “invisible” labor forces that keep a major city running. The looming strike strangely created a sense of solidarity among building residents, who began planning and organizing how to keep their buildings running without doormen.
The city’s public advocate advertised a website helping residents figure out how to deal with problems ranging from hot water loss to rodents to garbage cleanup.
If the union had gone on strike, many doormen would doubtless have gotten the satisfaction of seeing residents take note of all the behind-the-scenes work and services they normally take for granted. City sanitation workers, food and grocery delivery staff and other unionized workers had promised not to cross picket lines to pick up trash or make deliveries.
During the union’s last strike, in 1991, the New York Times noted how the increase in condo buildings and co-ops, as opposed to apartment complexes run by large development companies or wealthy landlords, shifted the dynamics of doormen-tenant relations.
Many residents are friendly with their doormen, and in past decades renting tenants – upscale, middle-class or even working-class – often felt allied with doormen against landlords. In co-ops and condos, tenants are the landlords, and hence have a direct financial incentive to fight wage and benefit increases for doormen.
The Times described the origin of the union, which had last gone on strike in 1979:
The roots of Local 32B-32J of the Service Employees International Union lie in the labor militancy of the 1930’s. In March 1934, Tom Young, an elevator operator who emigrated from the Caribbean, was dismissed from his job at a commercial building at 501 Seventh Avenue for failing to say, “Down, please,” to a passenger, according to an official union history.
All 25 building service workers went on strike, which was settled in their favor four days later. That led to the formation of the local, which organized elevator operators and service workers in the garment industry. Today the local has nearly 70,000 members.
After having geared up to run their buildings without doormen and janitors, it remains to be seen if residents will have more appreciation for the people they pass coming in the door every day.
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Kari Lydersen is a Chicago-based journalist, author and assistant professor at Northwestern University, where she leads the investigative specialization at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. Her books include Mayor 1%: Rahm Emanuel and the Rise of Chicago’s 99%.
