"What do we want? A new contract!" some 2,500 janitors and other building workers chanted on March 7, as they sat down in front of the Supreme Court in the Bronx, New York. The workers, members of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 32BJ, voted a week earlier to launch a strike on March 14, the date their present contract expires, if their demands around wages and benefits are not met. The wage of a super--a higher-paid SEIU member-- of $500 a week in the Bronx compares with $750 in Manhattan and $710 in Brooklyn. The workers explain that their health coverage and facilities are also much more limited. Local 32BJ covers some 70,000 workers, 15,000 of whom live in the Bronx.
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