NYC doormen can’t make ends meet, but the Mets tickets and golf outings are nice
Today the local building worker’s union kicks off a newspaper ad campaign featuring three NYC doormen who discuss the difficulties of making ends meet.
The campaign is presumably intended to lay the emotional groundwork for union contract negotiations that start next Tuesday. Current contracts with the city's 30,000 apartment building workers are set to expire on April 21st.
Among the issues not on the bargaining table, however, are the occasional perks bestowed on doormen by residents.
We sent BrickUnderground intern Will Sturek onto the streets to ask NYC doormen about the off-the-books fringes they have enjoyed the most over the years.
These perks don't put food on the table or college tuition in the bank, but they certainly make an impression:
- Bracelets for a doorman’s wife and daughter from a resident jeweler
- Wedding gifts including cash
- A jacket originally given by David Letterman
- Tickets to Citi Field
- Tickets to Yankees games, 3rd baseline, two rows back, though the beers and snacks still cost $100 bucks
- A round of golf, including caddy, at a resident’s private golf club
- Coffee and the occasional lunch
We ran the doorprizes by BrickUnderground's anonymous doorman, who agreed that the gifts have little impact on the fiscal health of building workers.
"That round of golf sounds nice," he says. "But the reality is that the cost of living continues to go up higher."
As for why the union ads scheduled to hit local papers today never hint at how much, exactly, building workers earn, Openthedoor-man has a theory: "Some people already think we make enough."
BrickUnderground's Strike Coverage:
Threat of strike diminishing amid "significant progress"
Insider's guide to the un-doormanned life
Predicting a strike: This time is different
NYC doormen to rally on UES tomorrow
Don't look for me on the picket line
Going rogue: Hitting the panic button in a strike
Relax, N.Y.: Doorman strike vote is just part of the 'dance'
In case of strike, hold onto your gas cap
Coming soon: A doorman and porter strike?
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