SATURDAY PM UPDATE: Commercial building owners and SEIU Local 32BJ reached agreement this afternoon. The contract will bring base pay for office cleaners to about $47,000 per year by the end of the 4-year term. Together with some overtime and some second-job work, a single parent family of three could manage on such earnings. Read SEIU 32BJ's contract summary here

You can read it in the morning papers, hear it on the radio, building service workers, members of SEIU Local 32BJ are threatening strikes as their contracts expire on New Year’s Day. The union, representing 26,000 NYC commercial building employees, and the NYC employers' association, the Realty Advisory Board, moved to the Sheraton (53rd & 7th Ave,) for the traditional down-to-the-wire talk fest. The commercial real estate market has been booming and the union wants more of the pie. In time-honored tradition of union struggles they held a rally Thursday and, between appointments, I stopped by.

The rally was huge and high spirited. I stopped counting at a 1,000 purple-hatted protesters. Updated at end, post jump.  read more »