Tentative deal reached for SEIU residential building workers

The 32BJ Bargaining Committee of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has reached a tentative four-year agreement for superintendents, porters and other residential building employees in the Hudson Valley. The contract was set to expire on Sept. 30.

The union represents 1,400 members who work at about 500 apartment buildings, co-ops and condominiums in Westchester and nearby counties. The buildings and their management companies are represented by the Building and Realty Institute of Westchester & The Mid-Hudson Region.

The four-year agreement includes increases in wages and benefits that add up to a minimum of $181.93 per week, over $9,460 a year over the life of the contract, and protects all benefits including 100 percent employer-paid health care and pension, according to statement by the union.

Other terms of the tentative pact include:

Limits temporary fill-in workers to five months.
Effective Oct. 1, 2019, an employer is not required to give extra pay for cleaning, snaking branch lines and waxing/buffing.
Direct deposit payments with bank-card option would become effective March 2019.

A ratification vote is set for Oct. 4 at 5 p.m. at the Teamsters Union Hall, 160 S. Central Ave. in Elmsford.