After weeks of negotiations, local 32BJ and the Realty Advisory Board (RAB) agreed on the tentative terms of the new four-year contract between building workers and owners. The deal, which was struck shortly after the midnight deadline, on April 21, avoided a strike.
The negotiations came down to the wire because a wage increase dispute between 32BJ and the RAB. However, 32BJ bargained a decrease in the amount RAB contributed into the healthcare fund – the fund that pays for employee healthcare coverage – over the life of the new contract. This decrease saved the RAB $70 million annually in healthcare expenses and gave 32BJ building workers a 10 percent wage increase spread over four years.
“The contract is an important victory for keeping New York a place where working people can call home,” said Mike Fishman, president of 32BJ. “We stood together and fought hard to maintain health care and get wage increases that will help thousands of hard working men and women make ends meet in one of the most expensive cities in the world.”
The tentative contract, which must now be approved by union and RAB members, maintained all of the benefits of the previous contract – full employer-paid health care coverage, pension benefits, sick and vacation days and overtime pay – and still increased, contributions to health care nearly 20 percent and pensions by over 20 percent, according to 32BJ.
Wages and benefit increases had been sticking points for the parties whose 2006 contract expired at midnight April 20 since, according to both 32BJ and the RAB, neither had expected the impact of economic crisis. Howard Rothschild, president of the RAB that represents about 550 owners and managers in Queens and 3,200 across the city, however, expressed his relief at the end of the talks.
“Through many days of hard work, the RAB and Local 32BJ have reached a fair and reasonable agreement that serves the industry, its workers, residents of more than 3,000 rental, co-op, and condo apartment buildings, and the entire city of New York,” said Rothschild.
“It’s a victory for building owners, employees and residents. Given these difficult economic times, it is an agreement we can all be proud of.”
At LeHavre on the Water apartment complex in Whitestone, which has about 39 porters, maintenance and handymen, the smiles on the workers reached across the Long Island Sound to the Bronx.
“I’m happy that everything worked out for the better and we are still getting paid,” said Patrick Mahoney, a porter four years.
