N.Y. Building Workers Agree To Contract

Staving off a strike in nearly 3,000 New York City apartment buildings, the union representing more than 30,000 residential building workers agreed Sunday to a tentative three-year contract that includes a lower wage for new employees and an 8.3 percent pay increase for workers.

The city’s residential building owners and the union representing doormen, janitors, handymen and elevator operators reached the accord after both sides made sizable concessions and agreed to a pattern that was set last year after service workers at 1,000 New York office towers conducted a 30-day strike.

Representatives for the owners said the agreement would be “costneutral” - that is, any increased costs would be offset by the lower starting salaries and other savings.

A strike would have affected hundreds of thousands of tenants, and the agreement delighted all those worried about who would watch the front door, sort the mail and take the garbage down the service elevator.