Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union has reached a tentative four-year agreement with the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations to increase wages nearly 16 percent over term for 26,000 commercial building service employees working in New York City, the union announced Dec. 29.

If the tentative contract between Local 32BJ and the association of building owners, operators, and cleaning contractors is ratified, the average wage for the commercial property service workers in some 1,500 buildings would increase from the current rate of $19.50 per hour to $22.65 over the course of the contract term, the union said. The employers also would increase health care contributions 20 percent to maintain fully employer-funded coverage.

Workers would receive hourly wage increases of 3.85 percent in the first year, 3.7 percent in the second year, 3.8 percent in the third year, and 3.9 percent in the fourth contract year. When combined with increased health and welfare benefits, the tentative agreement would increase employer costs per employee to an average $69,538 per year, according to the union. The settlement would cover building cleaners, porters, and maintenance workers.

The union had sought to bring workers' wages in line with the rising cost of living in New York. "We achieved our goal to secure real raises that will help hard working cleaners continue to live in the city where they work," Michael Fishman, Local 32BJ President, said in a statement. "Further, we've made an unprecedented improvement to our defined benefit pension plan, at a time when most workers are seeing their pensions decreased or eliminated."

The employers would increase contributions to the pension plan by more than 40 percent over the term, and the cap on monthly pension benefits would increase to $1,400, up from the current $1,250 limit for workers with more than 25 years of service, the union said.

Ratification Vote Results by End of Month

"This settlement should be viewed not just as a raise in wages for our employees, but rather as an overall package that recognizes increases in the cost of living and preserves our employees' health, pension and other important benefits that come with their jobs," said Realty Advisory Board President James Berg in a statement.

The tentative agreement would add an additional sick day for a total of five paid sick days per year and would add Sept. 11 as a new elective paid holiday. In addition, workers transferring from a contractor's to a building owner's payroll would maintain seniority under the tentative contract.

Local 32BJ will be sending mail ballots to members by Jan. 14 for the ratification vote, and results are expected by the end of January, said local spokeswoman Kate Ferranti. The bargaining committee is recommending ratification.

"It's an impressive settlement, and we're pretty proud of it," she told BNA. "Members by and large are thrilled by it," she added.

Union members Dec. 12 had voted to authorize a strike if a tentative agreement was not reached by Dec. 31, when the prior three-year agreement expired. The contract negotiations between the SEIU local and the RAB formally began Oct. 24. During bargaining, the union cited statistics indicating that rents in the city's top level of office buildings have risen 26 percent in the past year and are projected to keep growing through 2011, while vacancy rates have fallen to a six-year low. Meanwhile, Berg said that the city's building service employees "are the highest paid such workers in the country, and have excellent health, pension, and training benefits."

The RAB board of directors is expected to approve the tentative agreement in its vote Jan. 3, an RAB spokesman told BNA.

New York City is one of six markets in the Northeast where Local 32BJ has been negotiating contracts for 50,000 commercial office building workers from Hartford, Conn., to Washington, D.C.