NEW YORK -- Apartment house owners and the union representing doormen, porters and handymen reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract yesterday, averting a strike that would have left front desks, elevators and garbage in the hands of tenants or temporary workers.

Union leaders and officials from the owners' bargaining group, the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations, said that wages and other economic issues were the main sticking point in the all-night bargaining session.