Published: August 30, 2010

Workers at one of Brooklyn’s biggest apartment complexes are threatening to strike after their employer tried to slash pay and benefits, workers and unions officials said. Seventy handymen and porters who take care of the sprawling, 59-building East Flatbush complex could walk off the job as soon as this week. They voted this month to authorize a strike against Flatbush Gardens owner Clipper Equity after The company proposed cutting their pay and benefits by a third.

Brian Miller, 38, a porter who has worked at the complex for nine years, said he’s ready to strike rather than accept a plan that would cut his pay from $18 an hour to $12. “I have four kids to take care of. I have rent to pay. I have a car loan,” he said. “So it would really devastate me.”

The workers’ contract expired in April. Clipper wants to cut pay for handymen, who now make as much as $21.37 an hour, to $14 per hour, according to Local 32BJ SEIU, which represents the workers. Porters, who make as much as to $19.35 an hour, would see their pay fall to $12 per hour. New hires would make even less.

“They’re not talking freeze or a single-digit cut here; they’re talking 34%,” said 32BJ spokesman Matt Nerzig. He said there had been “no progress” in talks with management so far.

Clipper Equity defended the cuts. “Since our labor agreement expired seven months ago, we have sought to bargain in good faith with our union and will continue to do so,” Clipper Equity said in a statement. “Flatbush Gardens owners have expended substantial sums to improve and repair the complex. Even after installing brand new elevators in all buildings, replacing several boilers and burners, and replacing roofs parapets, hundreds of feet of return lines, among other renovations and updates, it is difficult to pay Manhattan wages and benefits and only collect East Flatbush rents.”

Vernon Rampersad, 70, a porter, said the 10,000 residents of the building would suffer without the workers, who make repairs and clean and remove garbage from buildings. “They need us,” he said. “The stuff that comes out of that building daily, if it accumulates for just two days, it would be chaos.”