They keep some of the most expensive buildings in New York safe. Yet security officers' wages are so low that it is a miracle they can survive in a city as expensive as New York.
Today, hundreds of security officers who belong to Local 32BJ - and hundreds more who do not - will hold a rally in midtown Manhattan. Their purpose is to let everyone know that all of them - union members or not - have one common goal: To raise the standards for every worker in the private security industry.

"The buildings we protect are worth many millions, but we get paid very little," said Ivan Shelley, a nonunionized security officer at a Park Ave. building who works for the Long Island-based Pro Quest Security.

After 15 years working security - the past six with Pro Quest - Shelley, 45, makes $11.50 an hour, with no health benefits. He works five days a week, of which four are 12-hour shifts.

"It's not fair that even buying a MetroCard is a sacrifice for people like me," he said. He would like for the Service Employees International Union's Local 32BJ, which represents close to 100,000 property service workers, to also represent he and his co-workers.
"I am passionate about the union," Shelley said.

There are an estimated 60,000 security officers in the city and 6,000 are already Local 32BJ members. Thousands more - like Shelley - are fighting to join.

The private security industry is plagued by low wages, paltry benefits and uneven training - even after 9/11 brought the need for improved security squarely into the public eye, said Kate Ferranti, Local 32BJ's spokeswoman.

"Many nonunion security officers earn poverty wages, even though they are expected to protect some of the most expensive real estate in the city," Ferranti said. "Many officers are people of color and their families and communities are negatively impacted by these low wage jobs."

Local 32BJ has launched the Stand for Security campaign to secure decent pay raises and minimum rates, health care and retirement benefits, respect and dignity for all security officers.

"We want to raise the standards for the whole private security industry," said Héctor Figueroa, Local 32BJ's secretary treasurer. "The building owners have the economic conditions to pay more."

Technically most guards are not building employees but are hired by security companies that compete for contracts on the basis of price, and the lowest bidder usually wins. This race to the bottom keeps security officers down, the union says.

"Our goal: We're building a movement to transform security jobs into good jobs. Our future depends upon our ability to stand up to the industry as a whole," reads a union brochure.

Figueroa thinks that building owners can make a big difference in the way the security guards are treated by their employers.

According to Figueroa, today's march and rally will be the first time the security guards union as a whole has publicly mobilized, but it will not be the last.

The time has come, he said, to call greater public attention to these workers' plight.
"We will keep getting the message out to New Yorkers: Security jobs must be good jobs," Figueroa said.

Participants will assemble today, at 3:30 p.m. at Lexington Ave. and 52nd St. The rally will take place at 4:30 p.m. at Third Ave. and 42nd St.