32BJ SEIU Votes “Yes,” Giving Bargaining Committee the OK to Call for a Strike

More than 10,000 residential workers across voted April 15 to authorize the 32BJ SEIU Union Bargaining committee to call for a strike if contract talks stall.

Now the Realty Advisory Board (RAB) has until April 20 to come to an agreement with 32BJ. If no agreement is reached, 34,000 residential workers will strike, leaving more than 1.5 million New Yorkers without doorpersons, porters, superintendents and more who provide critical building maintenance.

The union members, who rallied on Park Avenue before the vote, know a strike will make living conditions undesirable for building residents, many of whom showed up to support their building’s workers, along with 32BJ members from the Hudson Valley, Long Island, upstate, and other cities along the East Coast.

Still, 32BJ SEIU President Manny Pastreich said that they are keeping up the pressure to make sure “working New Yorkers are able to keep up with the skyrocketing price of living.”

“There’s a huge imbalance in power right now. Profits have gone up, the stock market has gone up, but workers have been struggling,” said Pastreich.

Several elected officials attended the rally to show their support, including Mayor Zohran Mamdani, City Council Speaker Julie Menin, New York City Comptroller Mark Levine, Candidate for United States Congress Brad Lander, District 2 City Council Member Harvey Epstein, New York State Assembly member Alex Bores, Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, and more.

In solidarity with 32BJ, Mamdani publicly renewed his administration’s commitment to affordability.

“We stand here with towering buildings alongside us. Who keeps these buildings running? You do! And yet I know that for so many of you, the lives of those you serve... and the lives that you get to lead contrast immensely,” said Mamdani. “New York is a union town, and we know that in order to be union strong, to show solidarity, it can’t just be a slogan. It must be a practice. Let us prove not just to this city, but to the world, what solidarity looks like.”

In a show-of-hands vote, the 10,000 members in attendance who flooded Park Avenue for more than five blocks all held up cards labeled, “Yes I’m ready to strike!” All 34,000 members of 32BJ were invited to the rally and given information about the process, although the union rules say that only votes of those in attendance can be counted.

The strike authorization comes after a month of negotiations between 32BJ and RAB ahead of the expiration of their current contract on April 20. The main items 32BJ asked for included increased wages to adjust for cost of living, pension improvement and protection for immigrants.

Charles Vega, a doorperson at a luxury condo building on the Upper East Side, went into negotiations optimistic a month ago.

However, after four sessions with RAB, which handed down a contract that includes introducing a Tier II workforce with pay differentials, shifts health care costs onto workers through premium sharing and no guarantee for pension improvement, Vega says he is “not impressed” but is going into the next five days “empowered” after such widespread public support.

“[RAB] are going to see we’re ready to strike and we’re not willing to capitulate to premium sharing, that’s just absolutely not what we’re going to do,” said Vega. “Today is a show of solidarity across our entire union.”

On the other hand, Vega did say that RAB has been “somewhat amenable” to immigrant protections first brought to the table in March.

“It’s a first step, but we’ll see what we get,” said Vega.

As they relaunched bargaining talks on Thursday morning at the New York Hilton Midtown, RAB maintained its stance that it is meeting the negotiations to the best of their ability. In a statement to Straus Media, Howard Rothschild, President of RAB, said the real estate industry is facing “mounting pressures” and “overregulation,” specifically calling out the plan for a rent freeze on rent-stabilized apartments.

“Without meaningful movement to address costs, including health care contributions and the establishment of a Tier II structure, the long-term sustainability of the industry and its workforce is at risk,” said Rothschild. “Now is the time for both sides to come together and negotiate a contract that reflects these realities and supports a viable path forward.”

However, in a study released by 32BJ, of the 34,000 workers currently covered by their contract, only 35 percent worked in buildings with rental units, while more than 60 percent worked in either condo or co-op buildings where rent does not determine their income.

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President April Verrett, who oversees all residential workers union chapters in the United States and Canada, including 32BJ, spoke to the crowd that they should not be “scared” or “divided” by a potential strike.

“Respect is expiring,” said Verrett. “And it expired a long a-- time ago.”