Chelsea condo workers strike after owner cancels healthcare during contract negotiations

[Omaha Steve]

https://www.laborpress.org/chelsea-condo-workers-strike-after-owner-cancels-healthcare-during-contract-negotiations/

February 15, 2024
Max Parrott
LaborPress

Six service workers in a Chelsea condo walked off the job Thursday on a 24-hour strike after the building owner canceled their health insurance in December without notice.

The move comes in the middle of a collective bargaining fight. The workers of the Jardim luxury condo building on 527 West 27th St. won a union election to join 32BJ SEIU with the NLRB on December 30, 2022 and have been bargaining for their first contract.

This week 32BJ SEIU filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of the workers. National labor law prohibits employers from withholding benefits or wages during a union organizing campaign. At the Jardim building, the employer allegedly canceled the workers’ benefits amidst contract negotiations. Without any notice, workers found themselves without access to health care benefits, and they remain without a contract. The building owner did not respond in time for publication.

“In the middle of bargaining they just took away our healthcare without telling us. We’re not going to let them treat us like that,” said daytime concierge Peter Polizzi, 66, in a statement. “I had a wrist surgery scheduled, but was called by the doctors office and informed I no longer had health insurance. That’s how I found out.”

FULL story at link above.


32BJ members rally for building service workers.” The photo is by me.