The workers are demanding better working conditions, an end to two-tier wages, a 10 percent pay increase, health-care benefits, and a pension increase.

Their three-year contract expires at 12:01 a.m., April 21. Management has proposed a number of concessions, including greater flexibility to lay off workers and a reduction in starting pay. Many workers said they were prepared to strike if a satisfactory deal is not presented to them by the contract deadline. The union represents 26,000 workers at 2,900 New York City apartment buildings.

Working people came from all five boroughs of New York for the action, which drew some 5,500 people. This was evident from the spirited response to the borough-by-borough roll call issued from the speakers platform. Mexican ballads, Puerto Rican nationalist tunes, and hip hop drum beats rang through the crowd, giving a certain international flavor to it.

Some SEIU members got a head start, chanting as they exited the subway train and marching as a group to the rally point near Central Park. Several doormen the protesters passed along the way gave thumbs-up signals. Many door attendants are members of Local 32B-32J, which represents building workers from a variety of trades.

"When you first start the job, you wait 30 months to get top salary. That's wrong," said Lawrence Jefferson, a young building worker at Lefrak City apartments in Queens.

Alberto Valencia, a maintenance worker who recently arrived from Ecuador, said he was at his first U.S. protest. "This action is good. We are all working hard to make a better life for ourselves and our children. The offer the company made is insufficient," he said. "If all the workers unite, from Los Angeles to New York, we will be stronger."

Mike Fuentes, a 21-year-old porter came with several co-workers from Queens because "we have to do this. Otherwise they'll take advantage of us." Fuentes added, "I think we are pretty united. We all got together here today even in the cold. It feels good."

A group of workers who are Black approached this reporter, skeptically asking what newspaper I was reporting for. When I said "the Militant," an older worker in the group cracked a grin. "The Militant. I know that paper. You all go way back. I remember you from Malcolm's day," he said favorably, referring to Black rights revolutionary leader Malcolm X.

Then another worker from the group, Eddie, who asked that only his first name be used, gave an interview. "If you looked around in the past, you would see that the majority of workers were whites. In recent years," he said, "more minorities have now come into these jobs. Management knows that today the majority of building workers are Black and Hispanic. They try to get more for less. They divide employees and try to create mayhem between us in each building. I am one of those individuals out here just fighting for my rights."

Eddie also made the point that in addition to demanding a decent health-care program, and top pay for all new hires, unionists are fighting for job security.

Anthony Pecorella, a porter at the Dayton Park complex in Far Rockaway, New York, and several of his co-workers also spoke about their fight. "Whatever we have to do we will do," Pecorella said. "We got docked [pay] to come to this demonstration, but it's got to be everybody together. All the unions have to stick together. If we didn't have the union we'd be making $5-6 an hour."  
 

New York city gov't recruits scabs

The New York city administration is preparing for a fight. Burns International Security Services is trying to amass a pool of working people in so-called workfare programs "to cover" for SEIU doormen in case of a strike. Burns is offering $848 a week for a 12-hour, seven-day-a-week scab job.

The Burns flier was distributed as one of the notices for jobs routinely circulated by the city among welfare recipients on workfare jobs. It stresses that applicants "must be able to handle crowd control, possible aggressive strikers, etc." City officials claim no knowledge of this, with one official stating it is against "our policy to recruit W.E.P. workers to break strikes." But the Burns company said they went through the state to organize recruitment.

Bill Meyerson, a Local 32B-32J spokesman, scorned, "The city should not be involved in recruiting for this kind of activity."

The march ended in a rally with several speakers, including Hector Figuerra, deputy trustee for Local 32B-32J, and SEIU official Michael Fishman, who thanked several unions for coming out to support their fight. These included the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 3, Laborers Local 78, health care workers Local 1199, and others. Cops cordoned off the rally, separating the participants into three segments.

Felix Arias, who started as a building employee in 1958, said, "When I started, the landlord got $58 a month for rent. Now he makes $1,000 for that same room. All we're asking for is a comparable wage increase."

Elena Tate, a member of the Young Socialists, and Ruth Robinett, member of the United Transportation Union, contributed to this article.  
 
 
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