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Hard At Work Figuring Out Imbalance

 While doormen fight for a small wage increase, they open doors for some of New York's richest.

Laura Flanders

April 27, 2010

For a little balance on the deal reached between New York City’s residential building owners and their hard working janitors and doormen — It’s not as if the doormen and women are the only hard workers in the building.

GRITtv dug up the records on an apartment tower, 15 Central Park West in Manhattan. The condo tower is home to Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs and Sandy Weill of Citigroup, two hard-working bankers. Weill bought one of the penthouses for $45 million.

Others for whom doormen open the doors are the hard-working performers Sting, Denzel Washington and Bob Costas, who also paid millions for their digs. Baseball great A-Rod rents his apartment there, for $30,000 a month.

Under the new contract, union doormen — and women — will be bringing in around $30 -40,000 a year. Hard workers all. In a hard-working city. Hard at work trying to figure out just how things turned out this way, and how long the imbalance can endure.

The F Word is a regular commentary by Laura Flanders, the host of GRITtv which broadcasts weekdays on satellite TV (Dish Network Ch. 9415 Free Speech TV) on cable, and online at GRITtv.org and TheNation.com. Support us by signing up for our podcast, and follow GRITtv or GRITlaura on Twitter.com.

Laura FlandersTwitterLaura Flanders is the author of several books, the host of the nationally syndicated public television show (and podcast) The Laura Flanders Show and the recipient of a 2019 Lannan Cultural Freedom Fellowship.


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