(front page)
NY building workers rally against concessions

NEW YORK — Thousands of commercial building workers — porters, cleaners and elevator operators who are members of Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ — and supporters rallied here Dec. 16 after voting to authorize a strike if necessary. The contract between more than 23,000 New York members and the Realty Advisory Board, an association of commercial and residential property owners and cleaning contractors, expires Dec. 31. The last commercial strike, in 1996, lasted 30 days.

The main issues are the bosses' demand for a two-tier wage structure with permanent lower pay for new hires and to prohibit union members from honoring the picket lines of other unions at their buildings, Iris Colón, a union strike captain, told the Militant. "If we lose that they will break the union," she said.

"All the workers should get the same, including whatever raise we win," cleaner Marco Gurgura said. "Otherwise, we're just giving them an incentive to get rid of the older workers. And we have to think of the next generations." The contracts of 7,000 32BJ commercial workers in New Jersey; 3,400 in Hudson Valley and Fairfield, Connecticut; and 2,100 in Hartford and New Haven, Connecticut, also expire Dec. 31.

— DEAN HAZLEWOOD AND SARA LOBMAN