The Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ, a property-services union with 8,000 members in the region, has secured an agreement with companies that provide building security to sit down for contract negotiations.
This will be the first time that both sides enter into collective bargaining talks covering the 1,000 union members who work in building security.
The campaign to organize security officers started in March 2004.
Some key companies signing the agreement include Admiral Security Services, Allied Barton Security Services and Securitas, which together handle more than two-thirds of the commercial buildings in the region.
Security guards for most of downtown Washington's office buildings are getting union representation to negotiate their pay, benefits and training under an agreement union officials announced this week.
The agreement was reached between Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ and security firms Admiral Security Services, Allied Barton Security Services and Securitas.
Guards for the three firms are stationed at about 70 percent of downtown Washington's office buildings. They include the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, National Press Building, Watergate Office Buildings, the National Geographic Building, Gallery Place, National Pubic Radio headquarters, Columbia Square and Lafayette Center.
Until now, the roughly 1,000 guards were not unionized. Some were paid as little as $8.24 per hour, the union says.
"Higher wages would mean I could get what I need to support my family without a struggle," said Charla Fletcher, an Admiral security officer. "The union will help us get more respect and better training."
Building owners are wondering how a labor contract would affect their lease rates and security.
Commercial property owners in the District paid an average of 71 cents per square foot for security in 2005, according to the most recent study by the Building Owners and Managers Association International (BOMA), a trade group. Of that 71 cents, 45 cents went for payroll.
"Guards make up the majority of that expense," said Lisa Prats, BOMA spokeswoman.
In the Virginia suburbs, the average paid for security by commercial property owners was 23 cents per square foot in 2005, BOMA reported. In Maryland, the average was 24 cents per square foot.
Local 32BJ officials said lease rates are unlikely to rise significantly. Reduced costs from lower turnover and better-trained employees would counterbalance most of the higher wages paid to the guards, union officials said.
"When we've done this with janitors in D.C., it has cost as little as a penny per square foot," said Jaime Contreras, Local 32BJ district chairman. "When you're talking about taking one penny or two pennies per square foot to give people decent wages and benefits, one or two pennies does not have a huge impact on rental rates or the property owners' bottom lines."
He was referring to labor contracts Local 32BJ negotiated for Washington janitors of commercial buildings in 1998 and 2003.
Commercial property managers in the Washington area declined to comment on how a security guard labor contract might affect them, saying it is too soon to know for certain.
Local 32BJ received the right to represent the guards through an SEIU organizing campaign that started in March 2004.
SEIU asked the security guards to sign union cards showing their preference to be represented by the union. As a result, the security firms this month signed agreements with Local 32BJ allowing the local to negotiate for the workers.
Labor contract negotiations are scheduled to begin next month.
Local lawmakers supported the workers in joining the union.
"Improved training and compensation can reduce high turnover and turn these dead-end jobs into good jobs that help workers support their families," said Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington's nonvoting Democratic delegate in Congress.
Published: June 25, 2007
The three biggest providers of security guards to commercial office buildings in the District say they will negotiate for the first time with a union, the Service Employees International Union, for a contract covering 1,200 workers.
Executives at Securitas Security Services USA, AlliedBarton Security Services and Admiral Security Services confirmed the planned talks, which the local SEIU said it will announce tomorrow.
The workers, who have over the past two years signed cards indicating they want SEIU representation, account for 60 percent of the 2,000 security guards the union estimates work in the District.
Valarie Long, vice president of the SEIU local chapter, said the union plans to try to represent all such workers in the District, Maryland and Northern Virginia, though she said the effort could take several years. Similar talks are also underway or set to start in other major cities, she said.
The union's goal is to raise standards for the guards, including requiring security companies to provide better training, better health care and, most of all, better wages, she said.
A typical guard might make $8.24 an hour, Long said. The union hopes to raise the minimum to more than $10.
"That would pump a great deal of additional money into the communities where these workers live," she said.
The union hopes to have a new contract for the District security guards by fall, Long said.
Jim McNulty, executive vice president of Securitas Security Services USA, said the company has good relations with SEIU in other cities.
"We agreed to the talks because we feel their goals and our goals are very similar," he said. "We have less turnover and a better experience all the way around in cities where workers are represented by collective bargaining. And our profit margins are better. It's a win-win for both sides."
Spokesmen for Admiral, based in Bethesda, and for Allied, based in King of Prussia, Pa., declined to comment beyond confirming that the companies have agreed to contract talks with the union.
The SEIU represents more than 1.8 million workers.
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Meeting in San Francisco, private security officers from nine cities around the country June 27 adopted national bargaining standards for negotiations that are expected to take place this year, the Service Employees International Union announced June 28.
Lynda Tran, the assistant director for communications for SEIU, told BNA June 28 that elected leaders and rank-and-file security officers met to develop and adopt the following nationwide standards for bargaining on expiring contracts as well as first contracts:
- fair wages that allow officers to support a family;
- access to quality, affordable health care for employees and their families;
- improved training and career advancement opportunities;
- paid time off;
- adequate work hours; and
- a commitment to establish a retirement system.
The standards were adopted the same week that SEIU opened bargaining for some 5,000 security officers in San Francisco and gained recognition for some 1,000 security officers in Washington, D.C. Earlier last month, SEIU announced it had gained bargaining rights for some 4,000 security officers in Los Angeles.
In December 2005, SEIU launched a national campaign to organize building security workers around the country through card check agreements with a goal of negotiating areawide master contracts.
According to Tran, a majority of security officers in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. signed union authorization cards and the companies employing them have agreed to recognize the union. SEIU is expecting to gain majority support and be recognized in several other cities in the next couple of months including Boston, Sacramento, and Seattle, she said.
At the time the organizing drive began, SEIU already represented and had contracts for security officers in several cities including New York, Chicago, and San Francisco.
Bargaining on replacements for current contracts in Chicago and San Francisco and first contracts for newly-organized workers could impact as many as 50,000 workers, which is why the union decided to adopt minimum standards for pay, benefits, and job training, according to Tran.
Tran said that the security officers around the country currently are paid a wide-range of salaries, with some being paid as low as $8 an hour while others are paid $15 an hour. Even those at the top pay rate are "having problems" keeping up financially, she said.
In addition to low wages, few of these workers have access to quality, affordable health care, according to the union, and some must work more than one job to make ends meet. Also, Tran said, there are no regulations on training from state to state and the employees do not feel they have adequate training for their jobs.
"Winning good contracts in cities around the country is key to transforming security jobs into good jobs," Valarie Long, National Director of SEIU's Property Services Division, said in a statement. "Good wages and benefits will ensure a stable, reliable workforce that translates into safer buildings and a safer public."
San Francisco Bargaining
Meanwhile, bargaining began June 27 for a new contract for some 5,000 workers in San Francisco. That contract is due to expire June 30, but the parties have agreed to an extension, according to Jim McNulty, executive vice president of Securitas Security Services, one of the companies involved in the negotiations.
McNulty said that there are at least 15 security companies in San Francisco that signed on to a master contract that was negotiated by five or six companies in the last round of bargaining. Currently, an issue on the bargaining table is "how we bargain" and with whom.
Tran said that the San Francisco companies have "taken a major step backward" since they negotiated a master contract by "slashing" health care. While the companies are continuing to provide 100 percent employer-paid health insurance, she said they are no longer covering some services, such as childbirth. The union will not "stand for these cuts in health care," she said.
McNulty, however, said that SEIU in the prior negotiations "allowed different companies to have different levels of benefits. We'd like to repair that as much as them," he said.
In Washington, D.C., SEIU announced June 26 that three commercial security providers, which together provide security for nearly 70 percent of all of the city's commercial office space, had agreed to recognize and bargain with the union following a card check authorization procedure.
The three companies are Securitas, Admiral Security Services, and Allied Barton Security Services.
According to Jaime Contreras, an official with SEIU Local 32BJ in Washington, D.C., bargaining will begin in the "next couple of weeks." He said that the union will seek to sit down at one bargaining table with all three employers. "We don't want three different contracts," he said.
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