Workers walk off job to demand health care
By Art Rosen
New York
In a magnificent display of working-class unity,
determination and militancy, thousands of building maintenance
workers, janitors and building attendants in Local 32BJ of the
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) walked off their
jobs on Sept. 23 at 2:00 in the afternoon. They converged on
the Manhattan Center, on 34th Street between 8th and 9th
Avenues, where they voted to give the union's bargaining
committee authorization to call a strike if their demands were
not met.
Local 32BJ represents 26,000 workers in commercial buildings
in New York City and more than 14,000 workers in commercial
buildings on Long Island, in Westchester County, in New Jersey
and Connecticut. A day prior to the Manhattan rally, the 32BJ
workers in the outlying areas also voted to give strike
authorization to their union.
Those in attendance at the march/rally estimated that as
many as 15,000 workers participated in the day's activities.
Their signs and chants along the route of the march focused
mainly on the building owners' attempt to cut out all medical
benefits won by the workers in earlier hard-fought struggles.
The message that the 32BJ workers brought to the thousands who
jammed the streets of mid-town Manhattan was clear and simple:
"Health care for all," "Health care now" and "Health care or
strike."
The huge outpouring of the rank and file membership of 32BJ
was in response to a call from the union for an "Emergency
Strike Alert." It was like a mini-strike, a warm-up for the
Oct. l contract deadline. The strike vote was taken inside the
Manhattan Center and was overwhelmingly and enthusiastically
endorsed by the membership. Following the vote in the meeting
hall, the workers spilled out onto the sidewalk and into the
street, where they began a march that wended its way across
34th Street and ended up opposite the Empire State Building for
a closing rally.
Representing the building owners in the current contract
talks with 32BJ is the Realty Advisory Board on Labor
Relations--a euphemism for the landlords and building owners.
This group of vultures has placed on the bargaining table a set
of proposals calling for: no wage increase for 3 years; a cut
in the work force; an added workload for those remaining on the
payroll; no health benefits for retirees; elimination of the
present $13-a-week payment to the 401K pension plan by the
building owners, and a demand that workers begin to pay part of
the premium on their health policies.
Local 32BJ represents maintenance workers who service both
commercial and residential buildings in the city. It includes
porters, superintendents, janitors, con cierges, door
attendants and window washers. The contract for the commercial
buildings expires Oct. l and the contract for the residential
buildings ends in April 2006. Although bargaining on a
residential contract doesn't begin for several months, many
32BJ members in residential buildings were contacted by their
union and joined the march and rally in a splendid show of
solidarity with their brothers and sisters in the commercial
sector.
Workers from 32BJ eagerly took flyers and leaflets given out
at the march and rally that announced the upcoming Million
Worker March to take place in Washington, D.C., at the Lincoln
Monument on Oct. 17. Included in the materials given out was
one announcing a fund-raising event for the Million Worker
March to be held the very next day at Local 32BJ's
headquarters.
A Latino worker summed up the mood and feelings of many 32BJ
members when he told Workers World, "We do all the dirty work
and they make all the money."
Reprinted from the Oct. 7, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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