Washington, DC – Security officers who protect City buildings and DC public schools visited Mayor Fenty’s office today to ask that the District ensure that they are paid the unpaid wages and benefits owed to them from their work for the City’s security contractor, Hawk One. Hawk One went out of business last week, leaving hundreds of officers unpaid for two weeks or more.
“I quit two jobs to work for Hawk One and now I can’t make rent because I haven’t been paid,” said Anton Young, a father of two and security officer at Alice Deal Middle School.
At-Large City Council Member Kwame Brown offered support for security officers and pledged to urge his colleagues to join him in working to improve contracting standards.
“The District needs to ensure that the City award contracts to companies that improve the standard of services for District residents,” said Brown. “Raising contractor standards helps get our finances in order.”
32BJ, which represents 1,500 private security officers who safeguard District offices, called on the Mayor and the District to adopt vigorous responsible contracting standards.
“Our schools would have had security, and security officers would have paychecks, if the City had selected a more responsible security contractor than Hawk One in the first place,” said Jaime Contreras, 32BJ District Director. “We must do better by our children and the officers whose job it is to keep our schools safe.”
With more than 110,000 members in six states, including 15,000 in the D.C. Metropolitan Area, 32BJ SEIU is the largest property service workers union in the country.
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updated 10/7/09
