Published: April 22, 2010

   A strike that would have sent thousands of building superintendents and other unionized apartment workers from their job stations to the picket lines has been averted after much negotiation.

   Local 32BJ, which represents 30,000 doormen, porters, janitors and superintendents had been going head to head with building owners for over a week.

   The tentative four-year agreement between the union and the Realty Advisory Board, which was announced early Wednesday morning, maintains benefits, including sick days, overtime, vacation days and increases employer contributions to healthcare by nearly 20 percent or $182 million and pensions by over 20 percent.
   The workers also gained what they said were “significant” wage increases under the agreement, more than the last contract’s 8.5 percent hike over four years

    “The contract is an important victory for keeping New York a place where working people can call home,” 32BJ President Mike Fishman said in a statement. “We stood together and fought hard to maintain health care and get wage increases that will help thousands of hard working men and women make ends meet in one of the most expensive cities in the world.