-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Feb.1, 1996
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
Some 35,000 strikers from Service Employees Local 32B-32J are strong and solid as their walkout enters its fourth week.
Thousands of strikers marched through midtown Manhattan, banging cleaning instruments and shouting demands, during the afternoon rush hour Jan. 23.
Local 32B-32J represents janitors, elevator operators, office cleaners, maintenance workers and porters at some 1,300 city office buildings.
The landlords' group, the Realty Advisory Board, asked union leaders to resume contract negotiations Jan. 19. To many workers, this was an acknowledgement that the realtors had seriously misjudged the union members' will to win a decent contract.
That's a testimony to the determination of the strikers and their solidarity in the face of police harassment.
It also reflects the composition of their union. Picket lines mirror the new face of the U.S. working class: people of color, women, immigrant workers, young and old.
Nationally, workers such as these, mostly employed in the low-paid service sector, are key to rebuilding the labor movement. The fight taking place at New York's skyscrapers-- although it is defensive and no one can predict its outcome- -represents the potential for labor struggles to come.
The issues in this strike go beyond a large local in New York. These workers are fighting the bosses' drive to cut wages through corporate restructuring, a national trend that affects every worker.
Local 32B-32J is at the front line.
Contract talks broke down after 13 hours. "Neither side has modified its position at this point," said RAB spokesperson Jim Grossman.
To the chagrin of City Hall and Wall Street, the strike is amazingly visible. Nearly every Manhattan block south of 96th Street is peppered with pickets.
Arctic winds? Mounds of snow? Driving rain? None of it closes down these picket lines.
Support remains high, especially among office workers being told to empty wastebaskets and clean bathrooms.
Sanitation workers collecting trash after the blizzard refused to cross picket lines. So have many other unionized workers, including Teamsters employed by UPS.
"The labor movement definitely knows the importance of the strike," said Trudy Rudnick, president of Teachers Local 3882, which represents clerical and technical workers at New York University.
Rudnick's union staged a spirited joint rally with the 300 strikers at NYU on Jan. 17.
Meanwhile, many smaller landlords are cracking. At some commercial buildings red-and-white signs proclaim, "This building has signed with Local 32B-32J."
In a letter to union members Jan. 19, Local 32B-32J President Gus Bevona said, "The employers know that support for the strike is growing, and they know that if they do not settle soon, we will be able to take the commercial-building superintendents out on strike."
The strike is over the landlords' demand for a two-tiered wage structure, with new workers making 40 percent less than everyone else.
Strikers know this is a cover to cut union jobs and lower wages.
"Our union worked hard for many years to develop respectable wages and benefits for us," a 32B-32J strike bulletin points out. "We cannot permit the landlords to destroy them ... "
The realtors claim they're not out to fire long-time employees. But a Jan. 20 analysis in Newsday pointed out that with a normal turnover rate of 7 percent a year, the owners would see only a .2-percent to .3-percent annual savings. Two tiers only make sense if the higher tier is let go.
The landlords' propaganda calling the strikers "overpaid" shows their contempt for the workers who do the hard job of maintaining, cleaning and repairing the buildings.
"The employers think it is ridiculous for a porter to be paid $29,000 a year," noted a strike bulletin, "but we are proud to earn a livable wage and that we have comprehensive health insurance and other benefits. ... Just because there are people working in our industry and others who are paid poverty wages is no justification for us to fall victim to the same plight."
The city government, police and media have mobilized against the strike. Police have arrested 60 picketers since the strike began. Court injunctions have been issued in an effort to chill striker militancy.
In a Jan. 19 letter to strikers, Bevona detailed some of the incidents: "At 225 Liberty Street [World Financial Center], a police officer put a gun to a striker's head. When another striker asked why that was necessary, she was arrested, cuffed and beaten. This mother of four spent the night in jail with a broken arm while suffering the taunts of officers in the First Precinct."
Union leaders were scheduled to meet with Police Commissioner William Bratton Jan. 22.
With their give-back demands, New York landlords--who number among the most powerful members of the local ruling class, and are intertwined with Wall Street and the biggest banks--are clearly testing the new AFL-CIO president, John Sweeney, and his stated commitment to organizing low-wage workers. Sweeney used to be president of the local.
Workers say they'd like to see Sweeney join them on the picket line and throw the resources of the national AFL-CIO behind their struggle. They would also welcome union initiatives that bring the scattered strikers together for mass action. Union officials have said such events could be planned if a settlement is not reached soon.
Building labor-community solidarity could really help the strike. Broader layers of the working class and progressive movement could be brought into motion to help turn a defensive struggle into part of a working-class offensive for higher wages.
Spreading the pro-striker message would help undercut the bosses' attempts to recruit strike breakers from among the most desperate and downtrodden workers. After all, a union victory would be a milestone in reversing the downward trend of wages for everyone.
The 32B-32J strike--the first big battle since the new AFL-CIO leadership took office--comes at an important juncture for labor. It could be a bellwether of struggles to come, as the new work force comes into its own.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@wwpublish.com. For subscription info send message to: ww-info@wwpublish.com.)