New York, NY – Today at 8AM, six workers who run the luxury condo building at 56 Pine Street went out on strike to protest their employer’s unilateral reduction in staff – with impacts on workload and workers’ ability to take breaks – without bargaining with workers and their union. Their union, 32BJ SEIU, filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) yesterday challenging the employer’s actions in the midst of bargaining a first ever union contract at the building. Previously, workers have seen schedules unilaterally changed by management, upending their lives.

Workers at 56 Pine have been fighting for a fair contract ever since they and 32BJ SEIU won a union election at the building with the NLRB in 2019. Through fights like this, over the last five years, 32BJ has organized 2,614 new workers into its New York Metro Residential division.

Workers who are not getting breaks are in the process of filing complaints with the New York State Department of Labor. The union also filed a separate Unfair Labor Practice charge with the NLRB in 2023, also related to unilateral changes to working conditions without bargaining with the union and workers. That charge was related to changes in workers’ schedules and is still pending.

On February 15, workers at the Jardim condo building on 527 West 27th St. went out on a 24-hour strike.

“We’re going on strike today because they have basically shrunk the size of the staff and have made unilateral changes that upend the lives of the people who run the building. They have failed to replace workers, keeping us understaffed, making it impossible for some colleagues of mine to even take lunch breaks. They’ve made changes to our schedules that are not fair. They should have to bargain about that. People base their whole lives around their schedule, then the building just changes them just like that. It’s adding a lot of stress and instability to the building and workers’ lives. People who once had two consecutive days off no longer have them, people are forced to work swing shifts, people who weren’t hired for overnight are forced to work overnight shifts. When people leave, they change workers’ shifts and fail to hire anyone new. It’s not fair and is adding a lot of stress to our lives. I just want to be able to focus on my job and have a basic level of stability in my life,” said Brooklyn native and Lead Concierge Michael Palmieri, who has worked at the building since 2007.

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With more than 175,000 members in 12 states, 32BJ SEIU is the largest property service workers union in the country. 32BJ SEIU represents over 80,000 building service workers in NYC, including 33,000 residential building service workers.