QUEENS — Three maintenance workers claim that they were fired by a Forest Hills co-op from their long-term posts earlier this year because they belong to a union, sending the complex into disarray, some tenants said.
The workers, who are members of 32BJ SEIU, the union that represents property service employees, worked for Boulevard Tenants Corp., an approximately 300-unit apartment complex on Yellowstone Boulevard and 65th Avenue.
But German Ahumada, who had worked as a super at the complex for 22 years, and two porters, Julio Murillo and his brother Jacinto, who were employed there for about seven years each, said they were fired on Sept. 1.
They said the problems started when the new board, which took over about three years ago, approached them and offered to hire them directly, but they refused and referred the co-op board to their union representative instead.
Earlier this year, the workers said they were assigned tasks that risked exposing them to asbestos, and the co-op board told them they had to obtain asbestos awareness certification immediately or lose their jobs. When they were unable to do that, the board terminated their employment.
“It was an excuse and the real cause is because we belong to a union,” Ahumada said.
After the firings, the co-op hired new people which some tenants said made them feel insecure and worried about security.
“I’ve always felt very safe and secure walking around the building, I knew that my needs will be taken care of, I felt that I can leave any member of the staff at my apartment alone and not worry about anything,” said Sharon Ulman, who has lived in the building for 27 years.
“Now, I double-lock my door and I keep all my windows locked and my blinds down,” she said.
Because the fired workers picket in front of the building, sanitation workers honor their picket line and do not pick up the garbage from the property, tenants said, which forced the co-op to hire a private garbage company.
“I live right above the garbage area so I know," Ulman added. "This is now disgusting. They don’t know what they are doing. Our whole quality of life has been changed.”
Sanitation spokeswoman, Belinda Mager, said in an email, that “when union workers are on strike and there is a picket line, Sanitation Workers, themselves union members, recognize the picket line so as to not create a hostile environment of one union crossing another.”
A group of tenants said they've also been trying to replace the current board with new candidates.
"Our platform was transparency and to restore the quality of life at our co-operation by reinstating our unjustly fired long-time maintenance staff and hiring a new management company," said shareholder Anna Potempska, adding that so far their efforts have not been successful.
In November, the National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint charging the co-op board with unlawfully firing the workers and contracting out their jobs to non-union workers without bargaining such changes with the workers’ union.
Once a complaint is issued, “the case goes to trial before an administrative law judge who will issue a decision,” according to Jessica Kahanek, a spokeswoman for NLRB.
The trial in this case is scheduled to begin on Jan. 12, Kahanek said.
The president of the co-op board, Nison Isaak, was not immediately available for comment despite multiple attempts to reach him.
