32BJ Union Averts Strike, Reaches Tentative Agreement with NYC Realty Advisory Board

Read our editorial on the significance of strikes here.

32BJ SEIU, the union representing 34,000 doormen and porters in New York City, announced on April 17 that it reached a tentative agreement with the Realty Advisory Board (RAB), which represents landlords across 3,500 residential properties. The tentative agreement averted a strike that workers voted to authorize on April 15, five days before their contract expired.

In a press release, the AFL-CIO stated that, “While the thriving Real Estate Industry continues to enjoy record high rents, high property values and historic low vacancy rates, 32BJ SEIU Members are falling behind due to the rising cost of living.”

A union flyer distributed to workers addresses workers’ two main concerns, explaining that employers will now continue to cover health insurance premiums, something they had previously fought to deny, and that they will increase pensions by 15%. The tentative agreement excludes the RAB’s proposed two-tier system, which sought to divide workers by paying new hires at a lower rate than current workers.

However, the tentative agreement proposes a mere $4.50 hourly wage increase over 4 years of the contract’s life, amounting to about a dollar increase in wages per year.

In response to workers’ concerns about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the union leadership claims to have “strengthened rights for immigrant members” while failing to describe any specific rights or provisions for protecting workers and residents from ICE.

The bottom of the union’s flyer reads, “Vote YES to ratify your contract!” Workers have until May 28 to ratify or reject the tentative agreement.

Workers have expressed frustration with the outcome of the negotiations. One doorman told The Worker, “One dollar a year is nothing with the way the economy is going.” Other workers say that preserving employer-paid healthcare is worth the wage stagnation. On social media, some workers have said that they will vote down the tentative agreement and protest outside of the union’s office, demanding the union negotiate higher wages.

In light of 32BJ SEIU union leadership’s track record, workers are justified in their skepticism that union leaders will represent their interests. Previously, 32BJ SEIU averted a strike in 2022 when it announced a tentative agreement with RAB the day before the contract expired. At that time, the union accepted a cumulative 15.4% increase in wages since 2021, while prices in the US have increased by 25% since five years ago, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Data from Realtor.com shows that the median rent in NYC increased by 6.6% just this past year.

Despite the decrease in real wages, 32BJ workers report that they face an increased workload. One worker told monopoly media that he currently handles around double the volume of delivery packages he managed before the COVID-19 pandemic. A doorman told The Worker, “There’s something much deeper to this. This is what happens in capitalism. There won’t be any middle class anymore, just rich and poor. And more and more people are becoming poor.”

Image: 32BJ SEIU workers rally to strike in April. Credit: 32BJ SEIU on X.

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