Around 70 residential-building workers say that they were locked out of their jobs on Monday as part of a contract dispute. The workers' contract expired in April, and workers have been working under the terms of the old agreement. The workers are represented by the Service Employees International Union, which says that the company wants to reduce salary and benefits by 30%. Th workers say that they cannot afford that, and that it is unfair to the residents to stop them from coming to work.
See "Workers Cite Lockout is Brooklyn", Chris Herring, The Wall Street Journal, November 29, 2010