General News

Showing support

Jan 17, 2008 11:52 AM

UFT President Randi Weingarten brought solidarity greetings to tens of thousands of fired-up office cleaners on Dec. 12 fighting for better pay and working conditions. At the mass rally at Rockefeller Center by members of Service Employees International Union Local 32B-J, held just two weeks before a planned strike deadline, Weingarten told rally-goers that employers in a booming New York real-estate market could well afford to treat their building workers fairly. The action and a unified membership resulted in winning a new four-year contract with a wage increase of 16 percent over the life of the contract, bringing wages up from $19.50 to $22.65 an hour. The employer’s annual pension contribution went up by more than 40 percent over the life of the agreement, and employer-paid family health care was maintained. The new contract affects 26,000 commercial service workers in 1,500 buildings in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, including those working at UFT headquarters. The contract between the building workers’ union and the Realty Advisory Board, the employers’ association, was reached on Dec. 29, just two days before the contract expiration and the strike date. One particularly irksome issue for service workers that the contract's wage provisions address is that while commercial rents jumped 26 percent citywide in just the past year as vacancy rates dropped some 5 percent — both trends that are expected to continue — building cleaners had their real (inflation-adjusted) wages drop 5 percent since January 2005. top: Weingarten addresses the troops. above: Ralliers show their enthusiasm.