Published: April 14, 2010

Posted on: Yahoo News, Le Figaro (France), Le Monde (France), Cyberpresse (Canada)

NEW YORK — New York's doormen, the guardians of innumerable revolving doors into swanky Manhattan buildings, are threatening to strike for the first time in two decades next week over proposed cuts in benefits.

The 32BJ union, which represents 90 percent of the 30,000 doormen and other building staff in the city, entered last-ditch talks Thursday on a new four-year contract.

If no deal is reached, then the doormen, famed for their gold-striped uniforms and encyclopedic knowledge of everything in and around the buildings they serve, will walk out at midnight Tuesday.

"There's no proposal on wages and they have proposed cuts on the number of vacation days, cuts on the number of sick days, and plus any new hire gets no pension," Mathew Nerzig, a spokesman for the union, told AFP.

The committee of building owners negotiating on the other side says that the economic downturn, which hit real estate especially hard, requires sacrifices -- and that doormen currently benefit from generous conditions.

The last contract was signed in 2006 when the housing market was in a boom period. Today, not only have property prices and rental incomes fallen, but so have the salaries of many residents, whose fees go to the doormen.

"Obviously we will be focused on controlling costs," Howard Rothschild, president of the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations, said in a statement.

"I can tell you that the past few years have been difficult economically for residential property owners and that it does not appear that better times are close at hand. The 2006 agreement did not anticipate these difficult times," he said.

According to the realtors' group, doormen cost 68,500 dollars a year in salary and benefits.