New York City apartment building workers approve potential strike over contract

Thousands of New York City building workers have voted to authorize a potential strike, setting the stage for what could be the first such work stoppage in 35 years. The strike would affect an estimated 1.5 million residents across the city if contract negotiations fail to produce an agreement before the current contract expires at midnight on Monday.

Members of the 32BJ Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which represents approximately 34,000 doorpersons, superintendents, porters, and other residential building workers, are locked in contentious negotiations with building owners over health care benefits, pension plans, and wage increases.

At a massive rally that stretched for four blocks along Manhattan’s Park Avenue on Wednesday, workers held cards declaring their readiness to strike as colleagues watched from their posts at nearby buildings. The demonstration highlighted the growing tension between workers who maintain some of New York’s most valuable real estate and the property owners who employ them.

“We try to take care of everyone,” said Adam Cintron, a 39-year-old doorperson who attended the rally. While hoping to avoid a strike, Cintron expressed concern about keeping pace with the city’s steep cost of living on the industry’s average salary of about $62,000 for doorpersons.

The standoff centers on several key issues. Building owners, represented by the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations, want workers to begin paying health insurance premiums—a benefit workers currently receive at no cost. Owners have also proposed creating a new, lower-paying job classification for future hires, which the union strongly opposes.

Meanwhile, the union is advocating for increased pension benefits and higher wages, though specific wage proposals have not yet been made public. Union President Manny Pastreich emphasized that workers face rising costs, particularly housing expenses, which he pointedly noted benefit “the very same building owners who say they have to come after our health care to make ends meet.”

Howard Rothschild, President of the Realty Advisory Board, countered that building owners face mounting expenses of their own, including the potential impact of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s proposed rent freeze on the city’s approximately one million rent-stabilized apartments. Rothschild called for a contract that “supports a viable path forward” and warned that “without meaningful movement to address costs… the long-term sustainability of the industry and its workforce is at risk.”

The building owners have noted that most American workers contribute to their health insurance premiums, unlike these building service employees who currently receive full coverage. But workers like Percy Jackson, a porter in Brooklyn’s East New York neighborhood who has been in the industry for 23 years, consider these benefits essential to their livelihoods.

“With everything going up in New York… if we had to pay, actually, into our medical, it wouldn’t work,” Jackson explained.

The potential strike would have far-reaching implications across New York City’s residential landscape. Building residents could suddenly find themselves responsible for tasks typically handled by building staff: staffing entry doors, sorting packages, cleaning common areas, removing trash, and maintaining building security.

The role of building service workers has evolved significantly in recent years. Doorpersons, often traditionally pictured as white-gloved figures at ornate entrances, now manage the explosion of package and food deliveries that surged during the pandemic. They assist residents with mobility challenges, provide security in buildings with hundreds of occupants, and often handle cleaning and maintenance tasks.

Superintendents oversee critical building operations and repairs, particularly challenging in New York’s aging housing stock, where many buildings are more than a century old.

In anticipation of a possible strike, some building managers have already advised residents to postpone renovations, moves, and major deliveries, and to minimize visitors until a resolution is reached.

Mayor Mamdani joined Wednesday’s rally, expressing support for the workers who “maintain multimillion-dollar apartments, and yet, when they get home, struggle to understand how they can make rent on the first of the month.”

The last strike by these workers occurred in 1991 and lasted 12 days. While the union has authorized strikes in the years since, they have typically reached agreements before work stoppages occurred. As Monday’s deadline approaches, both sides face increasing pressure to find common ground that addresses the economic realities of both workers and building owners in one of America’s most expensive housing markets.