New York Doorman
New York doormen see it all. They serve clientel from the posh to the poor, signing for deliveries and food, assembling furntiure and listening to late-night drunken ramblings. And now, they want fair pay for their troubles.
“On their way home, especially at night, they tell me everything,” said Hector Matias, a doorman in a luxury apartment building near the Hudson River. The 30,000 doormen and concierges (and handymen) have threatened to strike beginning Wednesday. This has tenants in a tizzy over the inconvenience of signing for their own deliveries and trash which may pile up and attract the infamous New York roach.
“What do we do with the trash?” asked Stefanie Howarth, a Greenwich Village apartment dweller. “Do we bring it outside? I don’t know.”
The doormen’s union, Local 32BJ, the Service Employees Interntaional Union represents employees at over 3200 apartment buildings. While employers want lower pay for new hires and fewer sick days, the union feels the $40,000 average salary for these individuals needs to remain at this rate.
“We dont want to strike, but we may have to,” said Upper East Side doorman Seamus McCormick. “We’re just trying to make a decent living.”