Commercial Contract Campaign Strike Vote Rally with 32BJ

Wednesday, December 20, 2:30PM: Rally with NYC commercial cleaners, porters and handypersons for a fair new labor contract covering 20,000 NYC workers and 1,300 buildings. The rally will take place at 41st Street and Broadway. RSVP here!

Workers' current collective bargaining agreement expires December 31. 32BJ is bargaining with The Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations Inc., an organization representing New York City’s major commercial office building owners, managers, and cleaning companies.

On November 28, the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations Inc. (RAB) formally proposed changes to the union contract impacting 20,000 NYC essential commercial cleaners who have sacrificed their health and livelihoods during the pandemic and been instrumental to the city’s economic recovery. The proposals include:

• Making members pay for their life-saving health insurance (healthcare premium sharing).
• A permanent second tier workforce that would lock in substandard wages and benefits for new hires.
• Unnecessary cuts to labor protections and fairness in the workplace that ignore how the existing contract already allows for reduction in the workforce when vacancies increase, as has been demonstrated over the last three years.
• Cuts to paid sick days and vacation.
• Eliminating overtime wages after 8 hours.

The changes proposed by the RAB would upend essential workers’ lives, making life untenable for thousands of working class families in the city. Single parents could be forced to move out of the city if forced to take on new healthcare expenses; workers would have to choose between their health and paying rent; grandparents could be forced to take on second jobs; workers already forced to work second jobs could face impossible choices. On December 20 let's show up and show RAB that NYC is a Union Town!