Washington, DC – October 11, 2010 – (RealEstateRama) — Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY 17) called for a fair and just settlement for Local 32BJ workers who are in negotiations with the Building and Realty Institute of Westchester and the Mid-Hudson Region, Inc. The Congressman’s statement and his letter to the management company follow below:
“The 1,400 workers who take care of the 100,000 tenants and shareholders in more than 500 buildings in the Lower Hudson Valley deserve a decent wage and benefits so they and their families can have a middle class life.
“As the senior New Yorker on the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Health, I fought a long battle to bring health care to millions of Americans. These hardworking union men and women should not have to trade their health care for a living wage.
“Workers must be treated with the dignity and respect they deserve to go with the wages and benefits they deserve.”
September 30, 2010
To Building and Realty Institute of Westchester and the Mid-Hudson Region, Inc.:
The more than 1,400 Building Superintendents, Handypersons, Concierges, Doorpersons and Porters caring for and assisting the 100,000 tenants and shareholders in more than 500 buildings in Westchester, Rockland, Dutchess, Orange and Putnam Counties deserve an honest wage and decent benefits for their work.
They average less than $35,000 a year, which is not enough to raise a family in a middle class life in the Lower Hudson Valley. They need and deserve good health care, and have even taken lower raises recently to maintain their health insurance plan. They also deserve to be able to look forward to a pension when they retire, one that will help them maintain a healthy life in their senior years.
These workers and their union, Local 32BJ SEIU, have been negotiating for more than a month to renew a contract which expires tonight. I urge you to come to a fair settlement with your workers. It is in the best interests of the Building and Realty Institute of Westchester and the Mid-Hudson Region, Inc. to have a work staff with pay and benefits that allows them, their wives and children to have a decent middle class life.
I will be watching these negotiations closely. I hope to see a settlement that is fair and just to these working men and women.
Sincerely,
Eliot L. Engel
MEMBER OF CONGRESS
