According to Fox News, thousands of New York City apartment doormen, porters, and building superintendents voted Wednesday, April 15 to authorize a strike, setting April 20 as the deadline for their employers to settle a contract dispute over wages, pensions, and healthcare. The vote was overwhelming.
The workers are represented by 32BJ SEIU, the building service workers’ union covering more than 30,000 employees in New York City’s residential sector. Their current contract with the Realty Advisory Board, or RAB, the industry body that negotiates on behalf of building owners, expires at midnight on Sunday, April 20. If no agreement is reached before that deadline, staff will walk off the job across approximately 3,300 residential buildings, leaving around 1.5 million residents without the people they rely on daily for package delivery, common-area cleaning, air-conditioning repairs, and building security.
The strike vote follows a mass rally on Park Avenue
On Tuesday, union members held a large-scale rally on Park Avenue in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, one of the city’s most expensive residential corridors and home to many of the luxury buildings whose owners are party to the RAB negotiations. Workers gathered outside buildings they service, directing their demands at the landlords involved in the talks.
Manny Pastreich, the president of 32BJ SEIU, addressed the crowd and criticized the building owners’ position. Pastreich opposed the RAB’s proposal to introduce a two-tier wage structure that would pay newly hired workers less than existing staff, and objected to any rollback of the union’s current healthcare arrangement, under which members pay no premiums. The median rent in Manhattan has climbed to $5,000 a month, Pastreich said, and the city’s real estate market continues to report strong returns alongside low vacancy rates. Without wage increases that match inflation, he said, workers are effectively earning less.
The healthcare question is the sharpest point of contention. Under the existing contract, members receive fully employer-paid medical coverage. The RAB’s proposed new contract would require workers to contribute toward their own premiums, a change the union has said it will not accept.
Success
You are now signed up for our newsletter
Success
Check your email to complete sign up
For the doormen and maintenance workers who showed up to the rally, the dispute is personal. Several union members spoke about the rising cost of gasoline, groceries, and transit. Property values and rents have increased, and workers said their pay has not kept pace.
Their demands reflect patterns often seen in urban labor negotiations, but the scale of the potential disruption gives them leverage. When building staff stop working, the effects can be seen quickly.
A strike would leave 3,300 buildings without services from day one
Building management companies have already begun warning residents to prepare. Flyers circulated in some affected properties are telling tenants to dispose of their own trash, limit deliveries, and reduce use of communal laundry rooms. Some higher-end buildings have gone further, notifying residents that bicycle storage rooms and storage units will be locked during a strike, and that no move-ins or move-outs will be permitted.
More than a million New Yorkers live in buildings that rely on full-time staff. Many of the affected properties are co-op and condominium towers where residents pay monthly maintenance fees that fund building operations, including staff services.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani appeared at the union rally and expressed support for the workers. Mamdani said the city must remain affordable for working residents and indicated his administration would support efforts to maintain job standards. City Council Speaker Julie Menin and several other elected officials also attended.
The RAB’s president, Howard Rothschild, responded with a statement presenting the building owners’ position. Rothschild said the residential real estate sector faces pressure from regulation, rising operating costs, and financial constraints linked to rent stabilization policies. The RAB states that doormen earn an average base salary of $62,000 a year before tips and benefits, and that proposed changes, including healthcare cost-sharing and lower starting wages for new hires, are necessary for long-term sustainability.
The union’s position includes fully employer-paid healthcare and no two-tier wage system. The RAB’s proposal includes both changes. Negotiations remain unresolved.
By Tian Jingxin
