Published: June 29, 2010

A Smithtown-based real estate developer has settled a labor dispute stemming from an incident in which he allegedly threatened to shoot a member of the local building cleaning union.

Glen Nelson, the chairman of the Matrix Realty Group, has been embroiled in a long battle with Local 32BJ over hiring a non-union company to maintain a Danbury, Conn. office complex that Matrix owns. In December 2009, some of the union cleaners confronted Nelson at his office and in front of his home in Miller Place, which is where the alleged threat was made.

“First Glen Nelson refuses to protect our jobs, and then he threatened to go get a gun and shoot me,” said Arthur Tiscia, who had cleaned the complex for 15 years.

Tiscia and 40 other cleaners lost their jobs after Matrix bought the 1.2 million-square-foot office complex for $72.5 million in June 2009. Matrix brought in a non-union cleaning firm, Advantage Maintenance, that didn’t hire any of the displaced janitors.

Nelson, who settled the case before the National Labor Relations Board without admitting any wrongdoing, denies that he ever made such a threat. He said he told the union member that “the current contractor isn’t going anywhere because he is doing a better job and because he is killing you on pricing”.

Under the settlement, Nelson has to post a notice stating that Matrix will “not threaten to kill you or to cause you bodily harm because you engage in activities in support of SEIU, Local 32BJ,” according to a statement from the union.

Nelson said Matrix has saved more than $1.3 million annually on cleaning and has invested the savings directly into the rehabilitation of the complex.

“We have a better contractor doing better work at a better price,” Nelson said. “You better believe we will continue to resist the (union’s) strong-arming and intimidation tactics.”