will anyone even notice if the NYC Doorman union strike occurs?”
April 19, 2010 If Doormen Strike, Residents Must Pick Up the Slack By PATRICK McGEEHAN and KAREN ZRAICK A possible strike this week by the doormen’s union could impose — by necessity — a spirit of cooperation in New York City’s co-ops and other apartment buildings. If negotiations with the city’s apartment building owners fail and the doormen walk off their jobs, residents of about 3,200 co-ops, condominiums and rental buildings will be called on to share the burdens of taking out the trash, sorting mail, operating elevators — even cleaning out lint filters in dryers. Contract talks between representatives of the owners and the workers continued Monday as a strike deadline of midnight Tuesday loomed. Officials on both sides said several issues remained to be resolved, including how much the workers’ pay would increase and whether they would have to contribute toward their health insurance. The owners contend that the recession has crimped their ability to afford a significant increase
It has been nearly two decades since New Yorkers faced their last doorman strike, but as the deadline for a new contract for building workers approached, the questions being posed throughout the city remained largely unchanged on Sunday. Who will safeguard my apartment as I sleep? Greet my children when they come home from school? Accept deliveries? Clean the hallways? Sort the mail? Operate the elevator? And who, for goodness sake, will let the cleaning lady in? Residents, co-op boards and building management companies have been busy planning for the sudden complications that could come at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday with the possible departure of the building workers who, among many other things, hold open the city’s doors. The Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations has distributed a preparedness manual with recommendations for keeping buildings in operation in case of a strike. “A strike is not pleasant, nor should it be taken lightly,” according to the 45-page document. “During a period
