Veteran Doorman Fired, And IPN Tenants Protest

By Nick Pinto
POSTED MARCH 1, 2008

The ink in their petition-signing pens frozen, their placards shaking, roughly 30 Independence Plaza tenants braved the cold Thursday evening, Feb. 28, to protest the firing of Gulcharan “Dave” Sahadeo, a doorman in their complex for nearly 25 years.

“We want Dave! Bring back Dave!” they chanted, waving their signs in an effort to alert other residents returning home that evening to their cause.

Tenants believe Sahadeo’s firing has little to do with security concerns. As one of their few remaining doormen working with a Local 32BJ union contract, Sahadeo would have been eligible in April to his contractual retirement benefits of about $12,000 a year, he said.

On Feb. 13, Sahadeo told the Trib, he let a group of four or five people into the lobby. He didn’t recognize one of them but assumed she was with the group. He was told that the woman, who apparently spoke little English, knocked on apartment doors on the 20th floor. Three women in one apartment, he said, became frightened and called the building’s security, who in turn called the police.

Later that evening a representative from the owner, Stellar Management arrived. “She said, ‘You have to go home. This is bad for the building,’” said Sahadeo. At age 64, and after nearly 25 years at IPN, he had been fired.

Kathleen Cudahy, spokeswoman for Stellar Management, said the company would not comment on a personnel issue, but added, “As a general matter, Stellar is concerned about this building and all buildings with respect to security and they do expect that their doorman would stop an individual coming into the building, ask who they are visiting and then ring the apartment to let them in.”

Sahadeo filed a grievance, and union officials met with the Stellar Management Feb. 21.

Eight days later, having made no progress with Stellar, the Union took the next step, filing for judicial arbitration.

“We have demanded that Stellar Management reinstate Mr. Sahadeo and are doing everything in our power to get his job back,” Kyle Bragg, a 32BJ vice president, said in a statement.

For residents of the building, the firing was a shock.

“Dave has always had a lot of integrity, but he's also got a way with people,” said Diane Lapson, the president of the Independence Plaza Tenants Association. “Kids that live in the building liked coming home to him so much they would make drawings for him at school and bring them back to show him. He made this a situation where we felt safe and protected.”

Milling about in the cold, some protesters noted with irony that a nearby side door to the building was open and unlocked the entire time. “So was this about security, or is this about cutting a guy out just before he’s eligible for his full retirement?” resident Ed Rosner asked.

In the meantime, Sahadeo is at home in Queens, awaiting his first unemployment check and hoping for the best.

“I try to go out. I can’t sit it in the house all the time,” he said. “I’m a working type of guy.”

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