32BJ SEIU has reached a settlement with cleaning contractor Babco Services after a National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) Region 22 complaint last month alleged union busting tactics at their Hoboken and Jersey City locations.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“The residential workers along New Jersey’s Gold Coast are building incredible momentum toward achieving just working standards for the essential porters, maintenance staff and concierges who keep apartment buildings running,” 32BJ SEIU Vice President and New Jersey State Director Ana Maria Hill said in a statement.
“For too long, these workers who have serviced luxury buildings in Hoboken and Jersey City were paid substandard wages and benefits. A union ensures they have the means to achieve something better.”
In the settlement, Babco admitted that at 205 and 235 Hudson St. in Hoboken, 70-90 Columbus Dr. in Jersey City, and the Shipyard apartments, 1 Independence Court, in Hoboken the company:
• Told workers that they would not bargain over wage increases even if the union won the election
• Interrogated workers about their union membership
• Threatened workers’ jobs if they chose 32BJ as their union
• Threatened the largely immigrant workforce by asking them to produce “passport style photographs” and threatening employees with reprisals if they didn’t.
Those allegations were all made in the NLBR complaint in January, as HCV first reported.
Babco has agreed to negotiate with 32BJ SEIU and workers at the Hudson Street buildings toward a contract for eight hours per month.
Their workers at the Hudson Street buildings are paid “poverty wages” of $18.50 an hour in a city that ranks second highest in rental prices in the country, the union said.
Furthermore, the Babco workers are a part of the union’s goal to organize 1,500 residential workers in Jersey City and its surrounding area to raise working standards across the industry.
Workers, following a December 5th rally with elected officials calling for a Jersey City that works for all, won a breakthrough contract that delivered better wages, employer-paid healthcare and access to the 32BJ’s free legal and training benefits.
