How could it be otherwise, what with real estate taxes climbing 5 to 12 percent annually, sometimes more, with fuel costs forever on the rise, and with the contract for building service staff workers up for renegotiation in 2014 and their pension fund needing to be fed?
Management negotiators said one factor that pushed them to go higher than they wanted to was the tradition that the apartment building contract is patterned after the same union's contract for 30,000 office building workers.
Another element, yet to be factored in, is the recent contract settlement for the building workers' union.
In December, as building boards began planning their budgets for this year, industry analysts were predicting a quadruple whammy: an 18.5percentt property-tax increase, soaring insurance premiums, the fuel costs from a bitter winter and an unknown: contract negotiations for 28,000 building workers.
Contracts for building the line were awarded to Svein Boasson, NCC Construction, Fyllingen Maskinstasjon and Veidekke Entreprenør.
There were four main contracts for building the line issued after public tenders.
Manhattan has separate awards for doormen and other building workers.
The office building workers' three-year contract, signed 17 months ago, provided raises of slightly more than 3percentt a year.
The contract for the workers' union runs through June 2008; and for the managers' union through October 2007.
Elissa Gootman (NYT) MANHATTAN: SERVICE CONTRACT SETTLED Building service workers ended a two-month strike at three Manhattan apartment buildings yesterday after their employer accepted the same contract accepted by 3,000 other New York apartment buildings in April.
