By Alexandra Cheney and Olivia Scheck
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MIDTOWN WEST — Doormen breathed a sign of relief just after midnight Wednesday morning, as building owners and union representatives inked a contract that ensures a 10 percent increase in wages and an expansion of health and benefits.
"I am relieved and happy and content," said Ray Ortiz, 34, who's been a doorman on Central Park West for the last 16 years. "We kind of feared that a strike was coming, but we fought and got what we deserve."
The union 32BJ, which represents roughly 30,000 doormen, janitors, building superintendents and porters settled on a four-year contract with the owners of more than 3,200 apartment buildings. Had a deal not been reached, apartment building residents would have been forced to take up the daily tasks of building workers, including screening visitors and trash collecting.
"Nobody wanted to be on the street," said Jim Mahoney, 53, who also works as a doorman on Central Park West. "We don't win that way, and I like it here."
Mahoney feared that if the settlement was not reached, the doormen would strike, losing money and even, perhaps, their jobs.
“The contract is an important victory for keeping New York a place where working people can call home,” Mike Fishman, 32BJ President, said in the statement. “We stood together and fought hard to maintain health care and get wage increases that will help thousands of hard working men and women make ends meet in one of the most expensive cities in the world.”
The union members were represented by 60 people, including Fishman. The building owners amassed a 12-person committee which was led by Howard Rothschild, the president of the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations.
The contract must still be ratified by union membership and the Realty Advisory Board's Board of Directors, which maintains benefits, including sick days, overtime, vacation benefits costing building owners $547 million, the statement said.
