Office cleaners who work at 373 and 381 Park Avenue South were joined on Thursday, Nov. 20, by dozens of their fellow 32BJ SEIU members and elected officials in a rally to denounce Planned Building Services for cancelling immigration legal benefits and health benefits and reducing wages from $30/hr to $22/hr.
With more than 175,000 members in 12 states, 32BJ SEIU is the largest property service workers union in the country. 32BJ SEIU represents over 20,000 commercial office cleaners in New York City.
32BJ SEIU told Caribbean Life that Planned’s actions at 373 and 381 Park Avenue South would also cancel workers’ union immigration legal services, which one worker utilized in September to apply for citizenship.
Thursday was Planned’s first day as the employer in the buildings. State Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Assemblyman Harvey Epstein were among those who joined the rally.
“Peoples’ lives are at stake. We can’t let Planned disregard the labor standards that generations of New Yorkers have fought to establish,” said 32BJ SEIU Executive Vice President Denis Johnston.
“I used my union immigration legal benefits to apply for citizenship for myself and my husband in September of this year. What will I do when Planned cancels my legal benefit?” said Hajrije Kukic, 61, a cleaner who has worked in Manhattan for 15 years and at 381 Park Ave South for two years.
“My health insurance saved my husband’s life. He had a serious heart attack in 2023 and was told he has to take expensive medication for the rest of his life. What will we do if they take our insurance away? We have fought too hard for our insurance, for our wages. We will not back down,” she vowed. “I have back pains from the hard work I do. And they want to take my doctor away?”
“I never took a day off during COVID-19. I risked my life. Despite being vulnerable after I fought breast cancer in 2014. Now they want to take my health insurance away and reduce our wages to $22/hr?! I need regular check ups for my breast cancer and high blood pressure. They are playing with our lives,” said Sejdefa Radoncic, 53, a cleaner who has worked at 381 Park Ave South for 20 years. “It’s not just me. My son and husband also rely on my health insurance. And if they lower our wages, how will I pay my mortgage and car payments?”
32BJ SEIU said 32BJ cleaners previously received $30/hour, employer-paid family health insurance, paid vacation, paid sick leave, a retirement pension, and have access to free legal, education and training services where they learn the latest sanitizing practices and access free career advancement opportunities.
The labor union claimed that Planned entities have had to pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars of stolen wages at other sites in New York and New Jersey and have been found in violation of federal, New York City and New Jersey labor law numerous times. The US Federal Trade Commission found it to be in violation of federal anti-trust protections.
32BJ SEIU said Planned entities have “a long history of illegally threatening workers for supporting unions, with one settlement totaling $873,000, including back wages, for lower Manhattan office cleaners.”
Caribbean Life has reached out to Planned Building Services for comment.
