Portside

SEIU Local 32BJ offers a case study of how unions can win, especially in the private sector which has seemed impervious to organizing.

Hector believed that the spirit of a union lives not just inside the halls of a union and in winning contracts. That promise is realized when the people in the communities where the workers live can live with dignity, can thrive, and can be happy.

Hector Figueroa, who as president of one of the country’s most influential labor unions led successful campaigns for better pay and working conditions for thousands of low-wage workers, died on Thursday at his home in Jackson Heights, Queens.

City regulators haven’t enforced a 2007 law that requires doormen, janitors and other service workers at taxpayer-subsidized apartment buildings to be paid wages comparable to union rates.

City regulators haven’t enforced a 2007 law that requires doormen, janitors and other service workers at taxpayer-subsidized apartment buildings to be paid wages comparable to union rates.