Strikers say 'no way' - janitors strike 1,363 NYC buildings

by Tim Wheeler

This article was reprinted from the January 20, 1996 issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.

NEW YORK - Custodial workers who keep 1,363 New York City office towers gleaming -- and sidewalks cleared of snow -- marched on the picketline again this week to block the landlords' demand for a two-tier wage with starting pay slashed 40 percent.

More than 35,000 members of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 32B-32J, African American, Latino, Asian American and white have been on strike since Jan. 4. It is the first major walkout by unionized New York janitors since 1948.

The strikers maintained their picketlines despite the "blizzard of 1996" and in the face of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's provocative order that police arrest strikers who interfere when scabs shovel the snow.

About 40 women marched with their strike placards outside the 102-story Empire State Building Tuesday. Rockefeller Center, the World Trade Center and many bank buildings on Wall Street are also being picketed. The strike is so pervasive that this reporter passed four picketlines in the short walk up to the Empire State Building from 23rd Street.

Helen Bajor told the World she has cleaned and polished offices in the Empire State Building for 21 years. "All I've got to show for it is this decoration," she said pointing at her picket sign. "We were out here marching all through the blizzard."

There is no way, she added, that workers will accept management's proposal for a two-tier wage with starting pay slashed from $573 per week gross to $352.

"Basically, we have no choice but to strike," Bajor said. "We do heavy maintenance work from five in the afternoon until 11:30 p.m. They turn the heat down in the winter so it's cold. In the summer they turn off the air conditioners so it's hot. It's after midnight by the time I get home. We live with the fear of being mugged. We get no police protection then -- but now we have cops all over watching us on the picketline."

Theresa Makola chimed in. "I've worked here 20 years. I don't want to work for $7 an hour. If they get a lower wage for new workers, the employers will push us out."

The strikers charged that the management of the Empire State Building, Helmsley-Spear, Inc., is bringing in undocumented immigrant workers as strikebreakers. "They pay them $7 an hour and tell them they have a permanent job -- which is not true," Makola said.

Two strikers walked at a side entrance on 33rd Street. One of them, Bill, who asked that we not use his last name, said he has worked five years in the 102nd floor observatory. "Leona Helmsley, the Queen of Mean, is the head of the board of directors of the realty group that manages the Empire State Building," he said. "They want to cut our pay by $150 per week. The want to take away our health plan. They want to eliminate seniority. The rent charged to the tenants in this building will not go down. So where will that extra money go? Into the coffers of the realty companies, into Leona Helmsley's pockets."

Helmsley served a jail term for tax evasion. During her trial she proclaimed that "only little people pay taxes." Mayor Giuliani raves about balancing the budget and has slashed funding for education and other vital programs. But Alfred J. Koeppel, one of the wealthiest real estate owners in New York City owes the city more than $4 million in real estate taxes. The top 20 commercial real estate owners in the city owe more than $80 million in back taxes. Commercial property on Fifth Ave. rents for $500 per square foot, highest in the nation.

Negotiations resumed Friday after breaking off last week. During a Jan. 11 news conference, Gus Bevona, president of the 70,000 member SEIU local, told reporters he had met with the executive board of the New York City Central Labor Council. "And they pledged their full and wholehearted support for our strikers," Bevona said.

"They will be honoring our picketlines, providing financial assistance and supporting the strike any way they can. They understand this is not just Local 32B-32J's fight. It is all of labor's fight because the outcome of this battle will be felt in other unions. Very possibly it will be felt throughout the entire country because of the sheer size of the strike."

SEIU Local 32B-32J was once headed by John Sweeney, now the president of the AFL-CIO. His union has spearheaded the drive to unionize custodial workers and win for them a living wage through the militant "Justice for Janitors" organizing drive across the country. Now the landlords and real estate interests are attempting to strip New York janitors of the living wages they have won.

Sweeney delivered a conciliatory speech, Dec. 6, to the Association for a Better New York. In his audience were many of the real estate owners who have provoked the current strike. Ray Abernathy, an AFL-CIO spokesperson, told the New York Times Sweeney is furious. "Now he's been sent a message loud and clear and personal by this outrageous demand that has forced workers out in the street," Abernathy said.