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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan.18, 1996
issue of Workers World newspaper
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On Jan. 4, over 30,000 members of Service Employees Local 32B-32J walked out on strike at over 1,000 large office buildings here.
The strikers are the building janitors, elevator operators, office cleaners, repair workers and porters. They are pitted against the Realty Advisory Board, which bargains for a coalition of companies that own and manage these buildings.
This is the first strike at the city's commercial buildings in 48 years.
The owners are crying poverty and demanding all kinds of give-backs--from fewer vacation and sick days to less overall health coverage. They have offered a 2-percent pay increase a year over the next three years; the union wants a 3.8-percent increase.
The bosses' most dangerous demand, according to the union, is for two-tiered wages. This system would cut the starting salary of maintenance workers by 40 percent--from $30,000 to $18,000 per year.
The new workers, along with current workers, will be asked to do more work in the same number of hours.
Local 32B-32J is one of the biggest union locals in New York. Its members, predominantly people of color and women, have fought over the years for decent wages and benefits.
In recent years they have watched many companies lay off thousands of workers. They have no doubt the building owners would do the same if they could hire new workers for less.
Many are women and men in their 60s and even 70s. They can't afford to retire, and they don't intend to let the bosses dump them.
In a letter to its members issued the day before the strike began, the union wrote: "It is important to understand that two-tier wages would eventually destroy our wage structure and the union itself. This deceptive scheme, which is becoming more and more common across the country, is a highly sophisticated form of old-fashioned union- busting."
And that is why the workers are walking the picket lines in freezing weather throughout the city--to protect their jobs and to protect those not yet hired.
The workers agree that because they have a strong union, the bosses want to make an example of them. But strikers vow that the only example they'll be setting is one of fighting back.
New AFL-CIO President John Sweeney was once the local's president. What better time for the new AFL-CIO leadership to flex the labor movement's muscles?
Already the strike has gotten support from the New York City Central Labor Council. Council President Brian McLoughlin has called 100 labor leaders together to map out a plan that could include a city-wide call to honor picket lines and the creation of a strike fund by all the unions to support Local 32B-32J.
Some Teamsters who work for United Parcel Service, Federal Express and the U.S. Post Office are refusing to cross the picket lines, leaving packages and mail undelivered.
Meanwhile, even before the big snowstorm of Jan. 7-8, the strike's impact was already visible in its first few days. Many buildings across the city house huge piles of uncollected garbage.
Bathrooms are dirty, toilet paper has run out and lunch areas are greasy and slimy. Many occupants are beginning to appreciate the "invisible" work usually done by maintenance workers as they sleep.
Building managers are trying to get tenants to pick up the slack and do some of the janitorial work. The union asks that office workers refuse in solidarity with the strike-- also pointing out that the owners are not compensating anyone for doing the strikers' work and are thus saving money.
Despite the difficult working conditions, most building occupants support the strikers. That's because the owners are millionaires and billionaires, while the buildings are populated mostly by clerical and office workers.
Often these workers greet the strikers by name and provide them with hot coffee to break the bitter chill on the picket lines.
At the union's request, many tenants have complained to building management and demanded that they settle the strike by dropping the give-back demands from the new contract.
Strikers on the picket lines have proven to be militant and defiant, stopping scabs from crossing. They have also blocked traffic in some instances.
The government moved in quickly against the strike. Police have arrested 34 strikers. A U.S. district court judge issued two injunctions.
One ordered union leaders to instruct the strikers to refrain from violence. The other barred strikers at Rockefeller Center from throwing eggs or garbage cans at scabs, and limited pickets at the World Trade Center.
New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani also stepped in on behalf of the bosses. He vowed to crack down on strikers, and put more cops on patrol against them.
But none of this has stopped the strike. In fact, after the blizzard hit, it was the city that stopped. Giuliani took the unusual step of asking everyone to stay home from work for two days in a row, even after the snow had stopped.
Although the administration never admitted it, this may have been partly because the workers now on strike usually help keep the city running during snow emergencies. They shovel the snow from in front of the office buildings and keep the sidewalks safe.
The companies are asking the workers to take cutbacks because--they claim--business is bad. In a strike bulletin, the union replied that when times were good, the bosses still fought against moderate increases in wages and benefits.
"The employers made it clear we were not `partners' of the real-estate barons and had no right to share in their windfall profits. Now we are told that the `good times are over' and we must tighten our belts."
The strikers know this is the same line the bosses feed a lot of workers. And they believe that the time to fight is now.
One woman on a midtown picket line told Workers World: "They're coming after us today, but it will be another worker tomorrow. We want to stop them today."
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