Building Service Workers Call on City Council to Stop Owners Cutting Costs on Backs of Working People

Hundreds of Janitors, Security Officers and Residential Workers Rally for Amendments to Displaced Worker Act to Protect Good Jobs

WASHINGTON, DC – March 2, 2016 – (RealEstateRama) — WHO: Hundreds of cleaners, handypersons, security officers, residential building service workers who are members of 32BJ; 32BJ President Hector Figueroa; Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer; City Council bill sponsor Robert Cornegy and cosponsors Daneek Miller, Corey Johnson, Antonio Reynoso, Ben Kallos and Barry Grodenchik

WHAT: Rally at City Hall to Call for Vote on Amendments to Displaced Building Service Workers Act (Intro 1004)

WHERE: New York City Hall, Corner of Murray St & Broadway, Manhattan

WHEN: Wednesday, March 3 at 3:00pm 

NEW YORK – Hundreds of building service workers will call on the New York City Council to help them fight back against building owners and tenants who want to threaten their job security, and drive down wages and benefits for building service workers.

At a rally on Wednesday, the workers will ask the Council to bring key amendments to the Displaced Building Service Workers Act to a vote and close the loopholes that have left some of them vulnerable to predatory building owners who want to pay cleaners, doormen, security officers and others substandard wages with little or no meaningful benefits.

The Displaced Building Service Workers Act was passed over a decade ago but over time some building owners have exploited loopholes in the law to try to push out long-term union workers and push down wages and benefits. The proposed amendments would raise a salary cap that– due to rising inflation and successful contract negotiations– threatens to exclude many of the workers the original law was intended to protect. The law also strengthens the remedies available to workers when a building owner or tenant tries to cut their  pay or their jobs.

The proposed legislation already has 35 cosponsors but it has not yet been brought to the floor of the City Council for debate and a vote.

VISUALS: Signs, banners, hundreds of rallying workers outside of City Hall

With 145,000 members in eleven states and Washington, D.C., including 70,000 in New York City, 32BJ SEIU is the largest property service workers union in the country.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Rachel Cohen 917-370-8464