- NYC luxury building residents fear chaos as 34,000 doormen threaten a strike starting April 20.
- Union 32 BJ SEIU seeks wage hikes, better pensions, and for healthcare to continue to be covered at 100%.
- D’yan Forest, 91, recalls the 1991 doorman strike as ‘total chaos.’
It’s enough to put a damper on your night at Cipriani.
With a potential doorman strike looming, residents of the city’s posh apartment towers are bracing themselves for the worst. They will have to open their own doors. Pick up their own mail. Take out their own trash.
“It’s going to be a mess,” said Hailey Glassman, a 39-year-old who owns her own PR agency and recently joined the cast of “The Real Housewives of New York City.”
Glassman, who lives in a newer, amenities-packed building in Hell’s Kitchen — it even has a bar and movie theater on the roof — notes that her doormen typically assist with everything from garbage and signing for packages to even picking up after fellow residents’ small dogs who tend to have accidents in common areas.
In anticipation of the strike, she said building management has already asked residents to limit their trash, and she’s fearing the worst.
“The whole building will start smelling like dog pee and poo,” she said. “We pay an astronomical amount to live in these buildings, and if the doormen go out, they may close the pool and gym.”
Glassman typically summers at her home on Martha’s Vineyard and has a house manager take care of her apartment in the city while she’s away. In preparation for the strike, she’s put the staffer on alert that she might need her services early to cope with her DIY living situation.
Still, she’s sympathetic to the workers.
“The staff deserves to be compensated,’’ she said. “They see that the apartments are so expensive, and they are making pennies.’’
Some 34,000 workers in 3,300 residential buildings across the city are part of Union 32 BJ SEIU. According to the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations, the average doorman makes $62,000 per year, not including benefits and gratuities.
The union is seeking a wage increase to keep up with inflation, along with better pension benefits and continued health care covered at 100%. Union members are set to vote Wednesday on the strike, which would begin April 20.
D’yan Forest, a 91-year-old comedienne who lives in the West Village, remembers the last major doorman strike, in 1991.
“It was total chaos,’’ she told The Post. The nonagenarian recalled people in the building volunteering for shifts and then flaking out, and extra keys being made for the garage, jeopardizing building security.
“Nobody knew what they were doing, and keys were floating around,” she said. “After that, we all said, ‘Just pay them whatever they want!’”
Safety is a key concern for many residents.
“People are crazier than ever,’’ said Tom Whitburn, 60, who lives in Union Square. “I’m concerned that they will come off the street and roam the halls. Just having IDs isn’t enough; we should be given fobs or keys to a locked door.’’
Beena T., a 37-year-old physician who lives on the Upper East Side with her husband, and preferred not to use her full last name for privacy reasons, said she chose her Upper East Side luxury building because of its security.
“We pay the rent we do because we feel safe there, and we have a relationship with the staff,” she said. “If we have to pay a couple of hundred dollars more a month to keep them happy, we would do it.’’
The possibility of not receiving her medication is a stress for Esther Uziel, a 77-year-old jeweler who lives in an Upper East Side post-war building. “The prescription I need to take is delivered to the building, but I’ve been notified that I will have to go to the post office now to pick it up if the doormen leave,’’ she said.
Residents who shop online frequently, will also have to adjust.
“I order everything, including food online, so I will have to stock up on supplies,’’ said literary agent Karen Gantz, 65, who lives on the Upper East Side. “We have a lot of service here, including elevator operators, but I’m resilient and I will manage. I’ll just have to figure out how to operate the elevator myself.’’
Many buildings, including some on Park Avenue, are asking residents to volunteer and help out.
Sean Hurley, 35, who works in finance and lives in the East Village, said his building had asked for residents to pitch in, but he’s skeptical.
“We pay a lot of money to live in a building with amenities, and a doorman is one of them,” he said. “If I volunteer to take out the trash, will they cut my rent? And will I pay less than the guy who doesn’t take it out?”
Nechama Pielet, a 77-year-old who lives on the Upper East Side, said her building was also trying to give residents jobs. She quipped that it could be an exercise in socialism for any left-leaning neighbors.
“I think this will be a good experiment for all the Mamdani voters.’’
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