Manhattan Building Workers Strike Over Coronavirus Safety Fears

NEW YORK, NY — Workers at two Manhattan residential buildings walked off the job Thursday to protest unsafe work environments and worker mistreatment amid the spread of coronavirus in the New York area.

Doormen, porters and handymen at West 87th Street's The Chamberlain and 432 W. 52nd St. walked off their shifts at 11:30 a.m. Thursday for a 24-hour work stoppage to demand proper personal protective equipment and safe working conditions from their employers, the New Jersey-based management company Planned Companies.

All seven of the Planned Companies' workers at The Chamberlain participated in the stoppage and three of the five workers at West 52nd Street participated. The two other workers at West 52nd Street are currently out sick, a representative from the union SEIU 32BJ said Thursday.

Issues workers had with management over fair pay and safe working conditions before the spread of the coronavirus have come to a head because of the pandemic, 60-year-old doorman Andre Kelly said Thursday.

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"Planned has mistreated me and my coworkers for a long time, but things got worse during the pandemic because we've just had enough, and we can't take anymore," Kelly said. "So we decided to come together and do this with the union. We know we get paid less than others who do the same job throughout the city."

Kelly said Thursday that he was ordered to quarantine for two weeks in late March after his wife came into contact with somebody who had a confirmed case of the coronavirus. During his time off, Kelly asked supervisors every day whether he would receive paid time off, but didn't get a straight answer until he returned to work on April 3. The lack of communication caused a state of "panic" for Kelly, who was unsure he would pay his bills.

When Kelly reported back to work, he also noticed a lack of safety measures for doormen and other workers. Managers promised Kelly that a mask would be put in an envelope waiting for him at the building's lobby desk, but instead found loose masks strewn about the workspace. The doorman reviewed security footage and found that the masks had been touched with packages and other items throughout the day.

Another worker at The Chamberlain, 32-year-old porter Tunde Bello, said he's worried about getting sick "every day" while commuting to the building from Coney Island. The health insurance offered to workers by Planned Companies is unaffordable, so Bello isn't being covered.

"We just deserve better. We're putting our life on the line right now, and it's like if I get sick I have to bring that back to my family. That's the worst thing... the people who I'm around — that's who I'm really scared for," Bello said.

Union leader Rob Hill, a vice president with SEIU 32BJ, compared the circumstances of Planned Companies employees to soldiers being "sent into war without the proper equipment, without the safety equipment they need, without respect." Hill pulled no punches in describing Planned as a "low road" contractor that "doesn't provide health insurance or paid time off and pays way below the standard rate of pay."

"This is a hard decision, we don't take strikes lightly — particularly in this climate," Hill said Thursday. "We have massive unemployment here, but people felt like they can't continue to put their lives at risk and had to take action and go on strike today."

Planned Companies said in a statement Thursday that the health of its employees is the company's priority during the coronavirus outbreak and accused SEIU 32BJ of "organizational bullying as an unjust effort to tarnish the reputation of the company and our dedicated employees."

"In a time when unemployment and anxiety are at unprecedented levels, SEIU 32BJ continues to use this health emergency to proliferate an agenda of operational disruption and muscle-flexing in the name political and financial gain. We can confirm that all buildings serviced by Planned Companies have been staffed adequately and professionally, and the feedback from owners and tenants continues to be outstanding," Planned Companies Spokesman Ben Martin said in a statement.

Elected officials such as Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, City Council Member Helen Rosenthal, State Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal and State Senator Robert Jackson spoke in support of the striking workers Thursday.

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