"We are demonstrating to send them a message," said Cecil, a maintenance worker in Coney Island, Brooklyn. "They want to cut vacation time and sick time, and we say, ‘no givebacks.’"

Local 32BJ represents 28,000 apartment building workers whose contract will expire April 20. The union has rejected a proposal by the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations, which negotiates on behalf of the building owners, for a wage freeze over the next three years. The employers proposed a one-time payment of $500 in each of the second and third years of the contract.

The present starting salary for janitors and doormen is $27,400, rising to $34,300 after two and a half years. The union is seeking to eliminate the lower starting salary, while management wants to extend this period a further year.

Victor, a 23-year-old worker from the Bronx, told the Militant that the bosses want to halve the two weeks vacation that workers with one year’s seniority currently receive. The bosses also want to cut the number of sick days from 10 to six.

Realty Advisory Board president James Berg claims that a weak real estate market and an 18.5 percent increase in property taxes mean the employers cannot afford to increase wages.

For their part, union representatives argue that the November 2001 contract covering 30,000 workers in office buildings, which incorporated a 9.5 percent wage increase over three years, should be used as a model in the current negotiations.

Members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 37 and Local 100 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union joined the rally. Speakers included two members of the city council.

Around 300 workers rallied the same day outside the main post office in Midtown Manhattan at a demonstration called by the Communication Workers of America Local 1180. The action opposed cutbacks planned by the city administration.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has already announced the layoff of 5,400 city workers in a package of measures that particularly targets public education. Ten thousand more jobs will go, he says, unless city unions swallow $600 million in concessions and the state government approves a tax for out-of-towners who work in New York.

The cuts include the elimination of more than 800 full-time classroom aides, an end to optional summer school programs, and a reduction in stipends for teachers to buy school supplies. School health and immunization programs are also on the chopping block.

Education is not the only target, however. Funds to maintain neighborhood parks are being slashed, while city officials say they will use so-called workfare programs, in which workers on public assistance are forced to work for sub-minimum wages, to replace 1,000 regular seasonal jobs in the parks. The city is further cutting funding to the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which has already announced a 33 percent hike in subway and bus fares.

Twelve of the 30 city-funded children’s health clinics are slated to close. Some sanitation workers will be laid off, meaning less frequent trash pickups in some neighborhoods. This is what Bloomberg calls his "best case" scenario. The "doomsday" budget that he says would be imposed without the taxes and concessions he is demanding would slash another $1 billion in jobs and services across the board.

District Council 37 has called a rally at City Hall for April 29 to protest the mayor’s demands. Participants will gather at 5:30 p.m. Students from the City University of New York are also planning a demonstration May 1 to protest tuition hikes and cuts in the public university system.  
 
 
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