Published: April 14, 2010

Thousands of New York City doormen and apartment building workers rallied on Park Avenue yesterday.

The Upper East Side doormen demanded a new multi-year contract that provides wage increases from the Realty Advisory Board. The protesters chanted and waved signs that read "No Givebacks, Fair Contracts." Givebacks refers to taking away previously earned businesses.

According to a spokesman for the Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ, the union representing the doormen, the contract would keep up with the rising cost of living, maintain family health care and ensure adequate funds for training and retirement.

"We take care of people, and we have to take care of our families," said Mike Fishman, president of 32BJ SEIU. "We are going to do whatever we have to do to get a fair contract."

The workers are considering striking if they do not get the contract benefits they want.

"I really don't see how a strike helps the union member right now," Howard Rothschild, president of the Realty Advisory Board, said in an interview with Habitat Magazine. "The unemployment rate in this country and in this city is out of control."

Marek Kruszelnicki, a doorman on 60th Street, voiced much of the anger that many doormen have been feeling.

"I've been wondering: For once, can they show a human face and sign up the contract like 10 days prior to the expiration date?" he said.

Kruszelnicki, who has a brother in Poland who is also a doorman, said there are drastic differences in labor rights between Poland and New York City. Not only does his brother in Poland have limitless sick days, but if he cannot make it back to work for a long period of time because of health reasons, he can still receive 75 percent of pay.

Fausto Pina Sr., another doorman in New York City, only has 10 sick days per year.

SEIU workers came from New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., to support the doormen of 32BJ.

The crowd heard from a number of speakers including Denis Hughes, the president of the New York State American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations; John Ahern, the president of the New York City Central Labor Council; and John Liu, the comptroller of New York City.