By ARIANA COSTAKES

With his union preparing for a strike, building superintendent Simon Concepción, 58, said he was rather looking forward to a break.”I’m diabetic, asthmatic and overweight,” he said in Spanish. “The strike would have given me some time to recover.”

Concepción, superintendent at several Lower East Side buildings and a member of Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, said he would have participated in the city-wide strike by doormen, porters, janitors and building superintendents had it not been averted early Wednesday morning through an agreement with the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations.

As its contract was about to expire, the union entered negotiations with the owners of over 3,200 apartment buildings. The Realty Advisory Board demanded that workers share the cost of their medical and dental benefits. The union demanded a pay increase to keep up with the rising cost of living and adequate funds for training and retirement. It also urged employers to increase participation in a new “Green Buildings” training program to lower operation costs.

Minutes after the original contract expired at 12 a.m. Wednesday, Local 32BJ officials reached a tentative four-year contract which will provide wage increases of nearly 10 percent, maintain family health care coverage and keep pension benefits secure.

Concepción expressed relief at the renewed contract and the extension of family benefits.

“My wife and I are raising our three grandchildren now,” he said. “We need the medical and dental coverage. With my health issues it would be impossible to continue in my work without insurance. I don’t make enough to pay it myself, either.”

The super said he was thrilled with the pay increase.

“I am very lucky to have good work and even luckier to get a raise,” he said. “I feel we deserve it, though.”

Concepción, like most building employees, makes around $40,000 per year.The rent-regulated buildings where he works are by no means luxurious; the tenants are mostly middle-class families. He said he rarely receives tips but that tenants often give seasonal gifts.

“They can’t afford to tip,” he said, shaking his head. “They give all their money to the owners!”

Felix Budzynsky, has lived at 195 Stanton St. on the Lower East Side since 1995, supported the building’s workers enthusiastically in their demands for the renewal of their contract.

“We don’t have a doorman here,” he said, “but Simon is basically it. He’s always there out front, keeping the high school kids from sitting on the Dumpsters and letting the UPS guy in. If we need repairs, he has his guys on it the next day.”

Budzynsky said he thought Concepción’s work must be exhausting.

“Every week he sorts the recycling, the trash, mops all the halls and common areas,” he said. “And this is just one of his buildings. I don’t know how he does it. … He is here from 7 to 7 some days. He definitely deserves a raise.”

Threats of a doorman strike also caused an uproar among the wealthy residents of many luxury apartment buildings in both Manhattan and Brooklyn. A forum on The New York Times website revealed that many tenants did not know what to do with their trash or mail. Others said doormen and porters were lucky to get the salary and benefits they did. These commentators were largely unsympathetic to the plight of the union members, saying that menial work deserves low pay.

Deon Fenton, an Upper East Side doorman, said he didn’t understand the negative backlash.

“We work hard every day so that we can pay the bills, give our kids an education, and maybe even buy a house,” he said. “Isn’t that the American Dream?”

June Tasch, 67, a resident of a large luxury high-rise on 80th Street in Manhattan, said her building’s employees are like family to her and that she respects their right to strike.

“I live alone here,” she said. “In a way they are my support-system. A strike would be very difficult for me. I think they should just give them what they want.”

Mike Fishman, president of Local 32BJ, said the contract renewal was an acknowledgment by the Realty Advisory Board of the hard work building employees do every day.

“The contract is an important victory for keeping New York a place where working people can call home,” he said. “We stood together and fought hard to maintain health care and get wage increases that will help thousands of hard working men and women make ends meet in one of the most expensive cities in the world.”

Strike preparations began April 14 when a team of over 1,000 strike captains began meeting at key locations throughout the city to discuss protocol and legal issues. Their contract with the Realty Advisory Board was set to expire in a week and the union refused to accept the new demands the building owners had drawn up.

“Nobody wants a strike, but we need to be ready for that very real possibility,” 32BJ Vice President Kyle Bragg said at the time. “Locking apartment building workers into a contract that does not keep pace with the city’s high cost of living is not an option.”

In 1991, Local 32BJ struck for 12 days, eventually winning an annual pay raise of 4 percent. During the strike, garbage piled up on sidewalks city-wide because sanitation workers refused to cross picket lines to collect the refuse. The memory of the 1991 strike may have compelled the Realty Advisory Board to hastily comply with the demands of the Local 32BJ this time around.

The new contract is subject to ratification by both the Realty Advisory Board and members of Local 32BJ. Most union members are positive about the deal.

“It’s a good contract. I am happy for this agreement,” said Nelzon Nunez, a 27-year doorman also on the Upper East Side. “I have to support my mother and my kids, and now I can continue to do so.”