Image: Maansi Srivastava/The New York Times/Redux
Update, 4 p.m.: On Friday afternoon, the workers’ union, Regional 32BJ of the Service Worker International Union, and the Realty Board Of Advisers on Labor Relations, which represents NYC apartment-building owners, reached a contract that would avert a strike before the April 20 deadline.
For some New Yorkers, it’s been more than three decades because they’ve needed to take out their own trash or schlep down to the lobby for a delivery. However in advance of the possible doorman and porters strike set up to begin Monday at midnight, folks all over town are evaluating building-management contingency prepares caution of whatever from extra chores to restrictions on relocations.
Some simply cover the essentials. Many co-ops are hiring guard to view the door and check QR codes or ID cards provided to citizens. Visitors will need to telephone upon arrival so residents can escort them in. UPS and FedEx motorists may decline to cross picket lines, so a workplace shipment is a much safer bet. And in many buildings, including those managed by huge clothing like Associated and Douglas Elliman, the service elevator will be closed– no furniture deliveries! And no remodellings either, since specialists won’t be allowed.
But some preparedness plans sound deserving of a pending nuclear disaster. In a three-page memo provided to shareholders of an Upper East Side co-op, residents were encouraged not to buy any shipments, consisting of food, flowers, or dry cleansing, and to “avoid all entertaining” other than for religious functions. Also, it included, please don’t use the laundry room because if a cleaning device breaks, nobody would be allowed in to fix it.
But who’s going to get the trash and all those cardboard boxes? Some buildings, including one in midtown, are asking residents to keep recycling inside their apartment or condos, which some users on an Upper East Side Reddit forum flatly declined to do. However the momentary solution for numerous structures is asking residents to fill out as volunteer cleaners, garbage schleppers, and greeters.
One attorney who serves on the board of her 145-unit Upper West Side prewar co-op stated that while her building will hire security personnel to check the QR codes released to citizens in case of a strike, locals (mostly fellow board members) are registering to take shifts enjoying the door, “so if somebody’s kid gets back and says, ‘I do not have my QR code,’ we can resolve it.”
She’s personally signed up to disperse bundles and mail– a huge task in a building that has no mail boxes. “Normally the personnel sorts the mail and delivers it to everybody’s door,” she said. “But if the staff’s not here, somebody has to do it. It supports my OCD, right?”
It’s a huge task, she acknowledges. “But I have two 16-year-old kids who do not rather understand that if it happens, they’ll be drawn into helping me. If it does not last long, it will be demanding but enjoyable.”
Certainly, at least a few are viewing the possible strike as a bit of a lark. A Scottsdale, Arizona, man flying in today for a monthlong stay at his East 70s pied-à-terre stated he’s totally up for a little volunteer adventure. “It won’t harm me to bring down a trash bag or more or do a shift or 2 at the front door,” he stated. “We’re preparing a cocktail party Tuesday evening for our photo-show buddies, so we’ll have a funny story if there is a strike.”
However for some, the stakes are higher. One Queens homeowner was stunned to find out that if the strike overlaps his moving date, he’ll need to cancel his out-of-state move. “I totally support the strike, however I am both livid and physically ill over how this will catapult me into debt, probably lead to losing my task, etc” he said. “I remain in a complete state of panic today over this.”
And then there’s the moral predicament some are considering: If you offer in the mail room, does that make you a strikebreaker? “LOL, f– off,” commented one citizen on the request he’s obtained from building management to “pick up the slack.” “I wouldn’t scab to change complete strangers, much less the doormen I see every day.”
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