It's the Doorman Strike that never happened! Over 500 porters, garbage attendants and maintenance workers formed picket lines at the Co-op City housing development in the Bronx at about 8 a.m., protesting a proposed four-year wage freeze. The Local 32BJ contract—a different contract than the one which nearly caused a building worker strike in April—with the RiverBay Corp. expired this morning, and negotiations reportedly broke down last week. 32BJ Vice President Kyle Bragg said in a press release, "RiverBay's refusal to put realistic wage proposals on the table left us no other option than a strike. Wage freezes are unacceptable."
RiverBay board president Othelia Jones was caught off guard by the strike, saying, "I don't know anything about it. I just came back from vacation. I don't know what's going on." However, the board reportedly refused the union's offer to extend negotiations until this Friday, so a strike would probably have been expected. Local 32BJ spokesperson Kwame Patterson also said the RiverBay Corp. locked the workers out of the buildings at midnight this morning, hours before the strike was to take effect.
The union members make an average of $40,000 a year with full health care, but want better wages, sick days, and better health care coverage. Board member Al Shapiro said their demands were unrealistic. "You have to understand, this is not a Park Avenue, Manhattan, co-op. This is the Bronx. We can't give away the store." Courtney Lumley, both a Co-op City resident and a maintenance worker, says the risks of the strike are worth the possibility of better wages. He said, “It's a slap in the face to hear RiverBay say we don’t deserve cost of living wage increases. We work hard everyday to keep the tenants happy and to make RiverBay look good."
Co-op City (the "largest housing cooperative in the world," according to Wiki) has over 55,000 residents.
