Hundreds of union members rallied in Midtown on Wednesday in support of workers who lost their jobs and had their wages slashed after a new landlord took ownership of a Diamond District property.
Members of 32BJ SEIU, the union that represents property service workers in NYC, gathered in front of an office building at 529 Fifth Ave. at 44 Street in Midtown, Manhattan, to protest the terminations and wage cuts against 10 workers, including cleaners, a fire safety director and security officers, several of whom worked at the property for decades.
Denis Johnston, 32BJ executive vice president, said new landlord Fifth City Realty, LLC, an entity affiliated with Empire Capital, made the drastic labor decisions after they purchased the building from Silverstein Properties last year.
“This company is bad on many levels,” Johnston said. They’ve been referred to as billionaire bottom feeders. They don’t care about workers’ rights, they don’t care about tenant services, and they have a reputation of not investing in their properties.”
amNew York Metro reached out to Empire Capital via email and phone for comment about the rally, as well as labor decisions which the union protests, but is awaiting a response.
According to The Real Deal, Empire Capital is run by former commercial brokers who emerged in recent years and have made a string of sizable Midtown acquisitions.
Hourly wages cut down to minimum wage at — $16 an hour
Fifth City Realty brought in L&J Janitorial, which the union refers to as a “low road” cleaning company, on June 3, leading to the six cleaners’ salaries getting cut almost in half to $16 per hour — the city’s minimum wage.
The company, union leaders said, also canceled workers’ benefits, including family medical insurance. Night shift cleaners had their weekly take-home pay reduced by 60%, due to their hours being drastically reduced.
According to Johnston, the new cleaning company is run out of a small apartment in Queens. It replaced ABM, a “reputable, publicly traded” janitorial contractor that paid the workers fair wages and benefits.
“Really what you have here is a case of a greedy building owner that is completely an outlier compared to the vast majority of building owners in NYC,” Johnston said.
Cleaners from buildings throughout the neighborhood joined the rally to support their fellow workers. The cleaners are demanding the building owner commit to area standard wages and benefits.
“My wages have been cut almost in half to $16/hour. They have cut our benefits. How will we survive? They want to take away everything we have fought for. But we are fighting back,” Ardiana Pllumbaj, an 18-year 32BJ member who works at the Fifth Avenue building, said.
Two full-time and two -part-time security officers lost their jobs under the new landlord. They are demanding their jobs back.
“I have worked for over a decade as a security officer to support my wife and two stepsons,” said Carl Williams, who worked at the building before June 1. “We can’t let greed win. We demand to be re-hired with industry wages and benefits. I could lose my health insurance soon, which my wife relies on for insulin.”
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