The maintenance workers, porters, and handypersons who keep New York City’s offices operating are trying to negotiate a new labor contract.
With a current contract set to expire on December 31, their union representatives at 32BJ SEIU (Service Employees International) have been in talks with the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations Inc. (RAB)––the union that represents building owners––to negotiate a new deal.
32BJ members took to the streets of Manhattan on November 9 as negotiations began.
So far, they have not liked what they’ve heard about the new contract, which is designed to cover 20,000 employees who labor in more than 1,300 New York City buildings.
RAB has suggested changes to its current health insurance arrangement with 32BJ members, and creation of a program of healthcare premium sharing that would have employees pay a portion of their healthcare costs. RAB also wants to decrease hours from employee work schedules since office usage has declined over the last three years in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.
In Manhattan alone, as of October 1, 2023, “vacancy rates have soared from 12.4% to 22.7%,” RAB cites the CBRE Group real estate firm as stating. And vacant offices won’t have to be cleaned as frequently.
“Over the past three years, the New York commercial real estate industry has [encountered] and continues to encounter soaring vacancies, untenable interest rates, declining building valuations, and the resultant economic uncertainty,” said Howard Rothschild, RAB president, in a press release. “The future of both the industry and our workforce is at risk without implementing alterations to enhance flexibility in our [collective bargaining agreement] and our healthcare coverage. At this crucial point, it is essential for the union and the industry to come together to create an agreement that secures a future that is both viable and sustainable.”
32BJ representatives have called RAB’s proposals “insulting.” Any cuts to employee take-home pay and benefits would be devastating for workers who already sacrificed for their jobs by having served as “essential workers” at the height of the pandemic.
32BJ member Luchiana Owens has worked as a cleaner at New York City’s Port Authority Bus Terminal for more than 23 years. Contracted to work with the Port Authority under her employer, T.U.C.S. Cleaning Service, Inc., Owens is part of the janitorial crew that cleans up after the estimated 260,000 passengers who stream through the Port Authority every day. Part of her job is to power-wash the terminal’s corridors and sanitize the restrooms.
Owens worked at the Port Authority throughout the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. “It was very stressful for me, myself, because I was pregnant during the pandemic, and I had to continue to work,” she told the AmNews. “And knowing co-workers were coming down with COVID, numerous times, some multiple times––some passed away––it was just very scary not knowing if passengers were sick and me just touching something and getting infected and bringing that home to my family. It was just very stressful during that time; I was very worried and did not want to work, but I had no choice because we were considered essential workers. We didn’t qualify for unemployment, like others did. I continued to come to work.”
32BJ union reps specify that “workers got up to 10 additional days of COVID sick leave during the pandemic––this was in one of the 18 memorandums of understanding 32BJ and the RAB made during the pandemic––but it was also part of various federal and state requirements, which varied by employer size.” More than 40 members of 32BJ died from COVID-19 at the height of the pandemic.
RAB pointed out that sharing healthcare costs is not unusual: “32BJ members are part of only 5% of U.S. employees that do not contribute anything for family healthcare premiums,” the building owners’ union said.
That fact does not detract from the point that healthcare premiums would be costly for working-class laborers, 32BJ said: “The changes proposed by the RAB would upend essential workers’ lives, making life untenable for thousands of working-class families in the city. Single parents could be forced to move out of the city if forced to take on new healthcare expenses; workers would have to choose between their health and paying rent; grandparents could be forced to take on second jobs; workers already forced to work second jobs could face impossible choices,” union reps said in a statement. “The industry reduced the workforce by 2,000 jobs since the pandemic, accounting for increased office vacancies and the fact that cleaners are not tasked with regularly cleaning empty office space. That translates to a reduction in labor costs by some $200 million annually. The industry agrees cleaners are essential.”
Owens said she’s pushing for 32BJ to keep healthcare costs off the table for union workers. She’s been a union member for as long as she’s been working at the Port Authority.
“I come from a union family: My mom, my grandparents, my dad, they all have union jobs. Once they knew I was in a union building, they were telling me all the benefits of having a union to stand by you, so there was no question, from me, about joining the union; I was very excited to join.”
Owens said she wants to be able to keep a job that pays enough for her to be able to raise her four children. “Most of the members of 32BJ are Black and brown or immigrant workers, and we just want to live dignified lives and just be able to live the American dream,” she said. “On average, we want to sustain what we have and what we’ve been able to gain over the past few decades because of the people before us [who] have fought for these good contracts for us. We’re willing to stay and continue to fight for our future and for the futures of the generations to come as well.”