RAB and Apartment Building Workers Union Reach Wage Agreement

Members of 32BJ SEIU, one of the city’s largest labor unions, reached a tentative agreement with the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations, a group of building owners in the tristate area. Following a week of negotiations, a strike by janitors, porters, handymen, and doormen was averted after they secured an 11.3 percent pay rise over the next four years (with the increase in benefits, that number is 13.28 percent). The deal also includes better retirement plans and protections against harassment.

The agreement will bring average wages up to $55,000 for more than 30,000 employees in in 3,500 buildings throughout Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island, making them among the highest-paid apartment workers in the country, according to RAB.

As many as 15,000 workers rallied earlier in the week ahead of the contract’s expiration on April 20 and voted to authorize their bargaining committee to order a strike if a deal wasn’t struck.