184 Kent to Councilmember Levin:

We Won’t Take Your Petition!

Councilmember Stephen Levin spent most of his Tuesday afternoon trying to convince the management of a high-rise condo building on the Williamsburg waterfront to take a petition, signed by approximately half of the building’s residents, demanding the immediate reinstatement of two workers who were abruptly fired after attempting to organize a worker’s union. However, the task at hand was more difficult than Levin anticipated—the petition was denied by members of management four times before he finally convinced the front desk clerk to receive it.
The councilmember, a group of angry union workers and the two former employees in question, Jose Guzman and Penil Martinez, gathered on Tuesday afternoon outside of 184 Kent Avenue, prepared to hand-deliver the stack of petitions to Stacey Ferraro, the director of operations at Roseland Property Management. However, when Levin and the crowd spotted Ferraro, she rushed past him as he called after her, went into her office and disappeared. But not before Levin was initially denied entrance into the building despite the fact that a resident of 184 Kent willingly joined the group, and invited the councilmember in as his guest. Levin, and the union workers, were repeatedly asked to leave.
“You have to leave, [Stacey Ferraro doesn’t want you here,” said a representative after the crowd refused to disperse or leave the premises. “You are all trespassing, and you’re going to have to leave.”
After several failed attempts, the concierge finally agreed to let Levin leave the petition at the front desk, though the likelihood that the papers will be received is unclear.
Guzman, who worked as a concierge, and Martinez , who worked as a handyman, were laid off from their jobs on May 20 of this year, and now they are determined to get their positions back.
“They told me I was fired for rallying for a union,” Guzman said. “We wanted better wages and better conditions. It was horrible here. There was no bathroom, there was nowhere to sit down, and we were breathing in fumes. It was totally substandard.”
Guzman and Martinez have since joined forces with private-sector union SEIU Local 32BJ, who formulated the petition demanding the workers’ reinstatement. Thus far, roughly 150 tenants living in 184 Kent Avenue signed the petition.
“Clearly they don’t want to recognize that there is an issue here,” Levin said. “They went to extremes to avoid receiving this petition. All the other developments along the waterfront have prevailing wage standards and provide affordable housing—184 Kent is the exception. This isn’t the type of neighborhood the people of Greenpoint/Williamsburg want to have. There is a right and a wrong here.”
Guzman explained that, as a result of his firing, he is now facing eviction. According to Levin, as well as representatives of 32BJ, despite the obstacles the fight is far from over.
“They refuse to take this petition from us, but they can’t hide from us,” Levin continued. “We will have justice.”
Representatives from 184 Kent Avenue and Roseland Property Management could not be reached for comment.

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