Strike Averted: 32BJ Union and RAB Reach Tentative Four-Year Deal

After a month of negotiations and a historic union rally on Park Avenue last week that attracted broad-based political support, 32BJ and the Residential Advisory Board of Labor Relations (RAB) reached a tentative agreement on April 17 covering the 34,000 doorpersons, supers, handypersons, porters, resident managers and others in the union.

The RAB represents co-op and condo boards and other building owners.

With a strike now averted, 1.5 million New York residents will not need to worry about going without building maintenance, and the members of 32BJ have won a contract that union leaders said delivered on their main bargaining items including wage hikes of 3.48 percent a year, while keeping health care 100 percent employer covered.

The pact still has to get rank-and-file approval by May 28 before the new four-year deal is officially approved. But the fear that a strike would paralyze many of the most upscale condos and co-ops in the city has been avoided. Once ratified, the new contract will extend to April 20, 2030.

As recently as April 15, labor peace appeared likely to shatter as the union appeared to be moving toward its first strike since 1991. A rally attended by over 10,000 members that day gave the union bargaining committee the OK to call a strike if talks with the landlords remained stalled. The impassioned rally on Park Ave. and E. 79th St. drew in-person appearances from Mayor Zohran Mamdani, city council speaker Julie Menin and others.

“We know one thing: that these building owners, these billion-dollar corporations, want to take away your health care,” Manny Pastreich, president of 32BJ SEIU, told the fired-up crowd of union members.

“They want to weaken us by creating a two-tier wage system,” Pastreich said. “They think they can break the union. They believe they can crush us. They think they can destroy us.”

But it was a different scene entirely at the New York Hilton Midtown Hotel on the afternoon of April 17 as 32BJ President Manny Pastreich and the RAB’s president Howard Rothschild appeared jointly to announce a tentative pact had been reached.

“We came together, 10,000 strong on Park Avenue, and we won,” said Pastreich. “The path to this tentative agreement was not easy. 32BJ members mobilized with intention this year to make crystal clear their priorities. And today we found a common path forward with the RAB that rewards workers appropriately ... I want to thank Howard Rothschild and the residential industry for working in good faith and reaching a fair deal for both sides.”

The agreement reached on Friday afternoon includes a $4.50 per hour increase in wage by the end of the four-year contract, protected family health with no premium sharing, no Two-Tier Wage System, Immigration training for employers, and starting in July 2026, a 15 percent increase guaranteed to pension protection.

Howard Rothschild, President of RAB spoke about how current economic and political realities facing the city made negotiations challenging, including the proposed rent freeze on one million rent stabilized apartments and Mamdani’s February 2026 proposal to raise property taxes by 9.5 percent if Governor Kathy Hochul did not raise taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations.

While many of the buildings covered under 32BJ’s contract are not directly impacted by the rent freeze policy on rent stabelized apartments, Rothschild said the proposed property tax increase could “make it more expensive to own and operate residential buildings in New York City.”

The union publicly cited sky rocketing rents as the reason landlords should be able to meet their wage increase demands. However, Peter Massa, a partner and Co-Chair of the Condo and Co-Op practice group at Fox Rothschild, told Straus Media about the current strain on managing non-luxury condo and co-op buildings, particularly increased regulations to manage greenhouse gas emissions through Local Law 97.

”People think of co-ops and condos and think of Park Avenue,” said Massa. “But there’s a lot of lower and middle income buildings that do struggle with expenses as well.”

Still, Rothschild maintained that coming to the table and hearing the concerns of 32BJ’s workers was ultimately the most important.

“Together we have reached an agreement that faces these challenges head on, and will allow us to succeed together,” said Rothschild. “This agreement is a Win Win, Win Win.”