“What do we want? Contract! When do we want it? Now!” chanted the workers, banging on scaffolding and clapping along. “People united will never be defeated! People united will never be defeated!”

The rally, staged by Service Employees International Union’s 32BJ chapter, was held to help 1 Lincoln Square’s 18 building workers unionize. According to the workers, their requests to join 32BJ have been shot down by the building’s condo board, which they claim is providing them with benefits and advancement opportunities inferior to what they would get from the union.
“I’m getting older,” said one worker, Terrence McGovern, head concierge who has worked in the building for 16 years. “I’ve got my own family. My kids are growing up. I need to provide.”
According to Joe Eisman, residential organizing coordinator at 32BJ, an employee who has worked in 1 Lincoln Square for as long as McGovern could afford to retire for less than a year with the building’s current benefits package. The building also provides no access to citywide training programs for trades like plumbing and carpentry—courses that cost up to $20,000 if paid for out of pocket—which allow workers to move forward in their careers.

To become part of a union, workers must demonstrate to their employer that a majority wants to join, then the employer must recognize the union and negotiate a contract. Employees at 1 Lincoln Square said that their problem is recognition: The building’s condo board refuses to listen to their requests.

“When I was on the board, it was important for us to make sure that the guys were on par with the union or better than the union,” said Joyce Silver, a longtime resident of the building who served as the board’s president 10 years ago. “That was our mandate—to make sure that the guys were happy.” Silver came out to the protest to tell the workers that she supported them. According to her, their paltry benefits were the result of the current board’s neglect.

Heather Albert, another resident at the rally (and the wife of famous sportscaster Marv Albert), agreed. “They’re cheap,” she said of the board, and called its members “a five-member dictatorship.”

“We’re really never given any information about what’s going on this building,” she added. “They’re saying this is the way we’re doing it and that’s it.”

She assured the workers that the residents were on their side. “You guys have always been here for us,” she said, “and we want to be here for you.”

McGovern and a fellow worker, doorman Nelson Arias, affirmed the workers’ good relationship with the building’s residents, and agreed that their problems seemed to come from the current board.
“If we ever had a problem back then, we always went to the board and they helped us out,”

McGovern said. “But now they’ve become more management focused and now it has totally turned. Before, they’d sit down and talk to you, and it’d be an amicable solution. Now it’s turned into either take it or leave it.”

He noted that the board worried that unionizing would create a wedge between workers and residents, but ironically it was the board itself that kept them apart. “We’re professionals. I’ve been doing this for 16 years. If I become union, it’s not going to stop me from doing my job,” he said. “I know my responsibilities and my duties, and I’ll still go above and beyond the call of duty to help all the residents out.”

The board, via a Cooper Square Realty spokesperson, could not be reached, and did not respond to requests for comments on the rally. Silver and Albert are both running for positions on the board in the next election, which will be held in January.

“This is a West Side moment,” said City Councilmember Gale Brewer, who showed up to support the workers and 32BJ. “People walk down their street and they see big tall buildings and they don’t understand that there are people in them that care deeply about the neighborhood, workers’ rights, not just about themselves.”

For residents to show up to the rally and voice their support, she said, was “very special, very wonderful.”

Over 8,000 Con Edison workers were locked out on Sunday after talks with the Utility Workers Union of America broke down. A weekend of hard negotiations and the impending heat wave did not help both sides reach an agreement. Con Edison says it has dispatched 5,000 people, mostly managers and retired supervisors, to fill in for the locked out workers.

Con Edison says it has offered the unionized workers a two week extension on their contract, provided that they wouldn’t go on strike without giving a 7 days notice. The union came up with a proposal of its own, claiming it was ready to keep workers on the job without a contract until the end of the negotiations. Both offers were rejected by the respective parties, but Con Ed says that the deal is still on the table.

Meanwhile, Con Edison spokesman Allan Drury said that the 5,000 managers who had been asked to fill in for regular workers were “trained and experienced,” adding that Con Edison would continue to provide its regular services as the summer’s worst heat wave yet has begun to loom over the North East.

In a statement, Con Edison also said that “all company personnel has been preparing for the possibility of a union work stoppage for months.”

Many union workers, however, did no share that optimism.

“[Con Edison] has placed their customers and the public at great peril,” union spokesperson John Melia told the Daily News. Melia said the managers that have been called to replace union workers “don’t have the knowledge or the expertise” to operate the system on the long term.

Union President Harry Farrell shared similar concerns: “They’re asking retired supervisors to climb poles and work in manholes and stuff – I just don’t see it happening.”

“As temperatures rise and the threat of power outages grows, I urge Con-Ed to end the lockout it has imposed and for all parties to resume good faith negotiations,” said Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. “Con-Ed employees deserve respect and a fair contract, and residents of the New York City region deserve assurances their power will continue without interruption as the heat wave continues. Both goals can be achieved if we work together and settle this dispute amicably–and as soon as possible.”

Con Edison sure won’t be having it easy, as a series of storms last Friday have caused massive power outages all over the East Coast, leaving over two million people without power. All this in the midst of a record-breaking heat wave that has seen temperatures hover in the high 90’s this weekend.

Scattered power outages were also recorded in Queens and the Bronx on Sunday. Con Ed spokeswoman Sara Banda however claims that those small-scales blackouts are typical of this time of year, and that the 650 power outages recorded in Queens on Sunday were in fact below average.

With both sides blaming each other for the breakdown in talks, it is hard to tell whether the Union is taking advantage of the heat wave to make unreasonable demands, or whether Con Edison is being unnecessarily stubborn in conducting the negotiations. Either way, both sides seem far from reaching a compromise.

“Consolidated Edison and the utility workers union must go back to the bargaining table and start talks again,” urged New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. “Resolving this impasse and lockout is in everyone’s best interest. With temperatures high, customers need assurance that service will not interrupted.”

Meanwhile, the heat wave is showing no sign of slowing down. It may be time to buy an inflatable pool, or for us less-fortunate city dwellers, to start sacrificing some goats to the almighty Spirit of Air Conditioning.

Photo by Karl Crutchfield

The perfect neighborhood grocery store—one with a variety of products, fresh produce, good prices and friendly staff – is a precious commodity in Manhattan, and many Upper West Side residents have found that grocery store standby in Food City, a family-owned outpost on Columbus Avenue between West 94th and 95th streets. A seemingly intractable labor dispute, however, may be threatening the store’s future and could soon result in another vacant retail space.

Food City, which also has a store in Brooklyn and one in Westchester, has been a union operation for over 50 years, but now the owners say that they cannot afford to operate with the current union contracts. The union, Local 338 of the Retail, Wholesale, Department Store Union (RWDSU)/United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), has responded with the familiar grotesque, giant inflatable rat, which they have stationed outside of Food City, urging locals not to support the business. Union representatives stand by it four days a week, handing out fliers, letting customers know that behind the scenes of the well-stocked food shelves inside, a battle for the future of the store rages.

“There’s nobody around me that’s union. It creates an unfair competitive environment,” said Paul Berger, one of the owners of Food City. He said that if other area stores like Duane Reade or Whole Foods employed unionized workers, their prices would be more in line with what he can offer, but that since they pay their workers far less and don’t shell out for benefits, non-union stores are driving him out of business.

“I have people that put frozen food in the cases, that’s all they do—open a box and put frozen food in a case—that make $56,000 a year with five weeks vacation, full medical, dental, pension, time and half on weekends. I have multiple employees like that,” Berger said. “As a business owner, it’s become unprofitable to operate the way we’re operating.”

The union contends that Food City is just pinching pennies and trying to take benefits away from workers who have earned them, and that many workers earn far less than Berger’s example.

“The reason for the informational picketing, the flyers and the rat is that the management has engaged in unfair labor practices, including intimidating workers, threatening to fire workers, interrogating workers about union meetings,” said Joe Fontano, communications director for Local 338. “We’re just trying to relay that message to [the public].”

Fontano said Food City wants to eliminate medical coverage for all workers except for assistant managers and managers, reduce pension benefits and stop pension contributions and reduce paid time off. He said that Food City walked away from negotiations last year and won’t budge.

Berger doesn’t dispute that he offered a reduction in some benefits, but said he didn’t refuse to negotiate; his final offer was rejected and he wasn’t willing to do much more, he said.

“We’re going to offer our employees a job. We’re going to cut vacation from five weeks to three, not cut anyone’s pay,” Berger said of his final offer to the union. “I’m going to keep my doors open. Other people in my position have closed their stores and sold them.”

Fontano said Food City refused to even consider a proposal from the union that would have saved $50,000 over two years in medical costs, and that they aren’t willing to compromise.

“They just want more profit, they just want to do it on the backs of the people working there,” Fontano said.

As the fight continues and both sides dig in their heels, residents have become concerned about losing a popular grocery store.

“It’s a neighborhood market, in a sense it’s been there forever,” said Mark Maas, a member of the West 94th Street Block Association who has been anxiously watching for developments at Food City. His concern, which he said many neighbors share, is a lack of good alternatives, both in price and quality, if Food City goes under.

“We can go to the Whole Foods up on 97th Street, we can go to the bodega on the corner, we can go to D’Agostino down on 91st and Columbus, but none of them are satisfactory because of the prices,” Maas said.

Berger said that he simply isn’t able to amend his last offer to the union, and that if they won’t accept it, he’ll cut his losses and close the store.

“It’s sad for the Upper West Side that another grocery store might bite the dust,” Berger said. “If I’m a bad person for paying someone $56,000 for packing broccoli, then I’m a bad person.”

Letters have been edited for clarity, style and brevity.