Published: April 14, 2010

NEW YORK – Five days remain until 30,000 New York City doormen and apartment building workers’ contract expires with the Realty Advisory Board, and with no deal in apparent sight, the workers, united under 32BJ SEIU, appear ready to take their battle to the pavement.

 “No one wants to go on strike, but if we have to go on strike, we are ready,” Johnny Gonzalez, a lower Manhattan-based doorman of 15 years, told Europa Newswire. “We are ready to do what we have to do. Being a part of a union is being ready to back them for as long as we need to.”

 32BJand the RAB have been holding ongoing talks since March 8, according to Matt Nerzig, the union’s spokesperson, but he said there’s been “no progress at the bargaining table.”

 While 32bJ is seeking to increase workers’ wages, maintain family health care, overtime and sick day benefits, the RAB has proposed to cut wages, as well as to reduce vacation, overtime and sick days.

 It is also calling for workers to start picking up 10 percent of their health care premium benefits, saying, according to The New York Times, that a weakened economy has placed it in a difficult position. While city rent has decreased, building operation costs continue to rise, the company reportedly explained.

 Yet 32BJ maintains that the Board’s present offer is unviable and unsustainable.

 “Our workers are struggling to get by on what they make right now and they need to be keeping pace with the cost of living in the city. The cost of living here rose 11.3 percent in the last four years, but their wages increased by only 8.5 percent,” Nerzig said. “There’s no way we can stand for this.”

 Approximately 6,500 32BJ workers marched and rallied together on Park Avenue, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, on Tuesday afternoon, to demand a fair contract.

 Nerzsig said the turnout was exceptional, and Gonzalez described the camaraderie he felt as “beautiful.”

 April first strike vote shows we’re determined to keep our city a place that working families can afford to call home,” Mike Fishman, President of 32BJ, reportedly said at the strike. “The hard working New Yorkers who keep our buildings running well, and New Yorkers safe and comfortable, should be able to live in the city where they work.”

 The contract, which covers 30,000 doormen, superintendents, resident managers, porters, handymen and concierges, expires at 12:01 a.m. on April 21, exactly. If a strike takes effect, more than one million New York City apartment, co-op and condominium residents living in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island would be directly affected. The borough of Bronx would be excluded.

 Some buildings are readying for the effects of a potential strike, consulting with private security companies and giving tenants instructions on how to handle the day-to-day tasks that doormen normally field – accepting deliveries, taking out the trash and admitting visitors.

 It’s unclear what precautionary measures would be taken for the United Nation Secretariat’s host of high-level officials, who live in Manhattan apartment and condominium buildings.

 “We wouldn't have any comment on this strike, nor do we have anything to say about its hypothetical impact on the living arrangements of some staff,” UN spokesperson, Farhan Haq, told Europa Newswire in an email.