FORT GREENE — Last Thursday, Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn joined members of 32BJ, the building service workers union, speaking to a crowd of protestors and their supporters in front of One Hanson Place, the former Williamsburgh Savings Bank building in Fort Greene.
They were protesting the lack of benefits for the workers who maintain the newly converted luxury condominium.
Currently, the workers at the building are being denied the family health care, pension benefits and job security that 60,000 other New York building service workers represented by 32BJ receive, according to Kyle Bragg, 32BJ vice president.
“We’re not going to stand in the front of the clock tower — a symbol of Brooklyn’s beauty and strength —and watch developers make money on the backs of the workers who keep their luxury condominiums running,” Bragg said. “Health care and job security are not luxury items to workers who are trying to support their families in New York City.”
According to Bragg, the developer, Dermot Property Associates, amended the building’s original offering plan to reduce worker wages and benefits and stated the staff would be “non-union” despite previous commitments to area standards. At the same time, individual condominium sales have been steady with many units selling around $1 million.
“The effort by the developer to deny workers at One Hanson Place the family health care and job protection they deserve undermines the fundamental values we cherish as Brooklynites,” said Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries. “The Clock Tower, which for decades stood as a symbol of Brooklyn pride, is now at risk of being transformed into a monument of excessive greed.”
Most large residential buildings in Brooklyn, including new developments at 110 Livingston St., One Brooklyn Bridge Park and 100 Jay St., are maintained by 32BJ members. Manhattan’s luxury residential buildings are staffed almost exclusively by 32BJ members. Prior to the Clock Tower’s conversion to residential space, the cleaning and maintenance workers in the building were 32BJ members earning area standard wages and benefits.
With more than 100,000 members, 32BJ is the largest property service union in the country.
— Linda Collins
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© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2008
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