Security Officers Adopt Standards To Be Used Nationally in Bargaining
Published: June 29, 2007
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.