Office Cleaners Union Votes To Authorize Strike

By: Zack Fink

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Several thousand union members representing office cleaners gathered at the Sheraton in Midtown Thursday and voted to authorize a possible strike when the current contract expires on December 31. NY1's Zack Fink filed the following report.

The union representing office cleaners voted in favor of a potential strike Thursday.

Around 22,000 cleaners and custodial workers are represented by Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union. They are responsible for 1,500 office buildings throughout the city.

"The president was telling us about the RAB proposal, and it's not in our favor, so we are not agreeing to it,” said one worker. “We passed a motion to strike. If we cannot come to an agreement, and they cannot give us what we want, we cannot work."

One of the biggest sticking points in the current contract negotiations is what workers call a two-tier wage system. In other words, new hires would make less money.

Union members say that's a threat to job security for higher wage earners. In addition, they say the building owners want to eliminate pensions and reduce benefits.

"Everybody here wants to make sure that they have decent health care, decent pension and decent wages. The employers are saying we make too much and they wanna take it away, and we're ready to fight to keep it,” said Mike Fishman, president of 32BJ.

The Realty Advisory Board, which represents the building owners, claims union members make more than any other office cleaners in the country.

They add that when the last contract went into effect in 2008, it was before the financial crisis.

"The asking rents in New York were about $90 a foot. Now the effective asking rates in New York are about $47 a foot. In 2008, vacancies were about 5.5 percent. Now vacancies are about 9.7 percent. So we have a huge loss on the revenue side," said Howard Rothschild, president of the Realty Advisory Board.

Although a strike is not certain, Rothschild said building owners are making preparations just in case.

Several thousand workers packed into the Sheraton Thursday to vote in favor of a strike. The current contract expires on December 31, so the earliest a strike would happen is January 1.

In the meantime, negotiations between the two sides continue.