Nearly 1,100 security officers guarding city buildings including the Municipal Building and the Staten Island Ferry terminal could go on strike May 16 because their employer, AlliedBarton, has cut off contract negotiations with their union, Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ.

The union argued that their pay— which starts at $11.50 per hour—and meager benefits are well below the standard for security officers at other companies. The standard in the city is an average of $15 per hour, according to the union, along with a family health-care plan.

Calls Coverage Inadequate

"It's what I call a discount card," said Ron Lopez, a security officer at Pier 11 and the Staten Island Ferry's Manhattan terminal, of the company's health-care plan. "It doesn't even take like 8, 10 percent off. Someone like me and some of the other workers who have Type 2 Diabetes, it gets to be a hardship."

The job offers no paid time-off, he said, even if workers are injured in the line of duty. Where Mr. Lopez works, security officers often encounter intoxicated people and Emotional Disturbed Persons and must use physical force to subdue them, and officers also have to confront violent people before police officers arrive on the scene, he added.

Mr. Lopez explained that the compensation package forced many AlliedBarton workers to hold other jobs and work while they're sick rather than risk taking an unpaid day off. He also noted that there was high turnover at AlliedBarton.

"It's very easy for us to get fired," Mr. Lopez said. "[A supervisor] could just come in one day and basically they're in a bad mood because someone put one sugar too much in their coffee and it's very easy for them to say, 'I don't want that person here anymore,' and that's it."

Company spokesman Alan Stein said in an e-mail: "We will continue to bargain in good faith with the goal of achieving a fair contract for our officers."

Abbreviated Training

Local 32BJ takes particular issue with AlliedBarton's training program, which offers an eight-hour training session annually. According to the union's director of organizing, Rob Hill, other security companies enroll their workers in a 40-hour training course that has been endorsed by the Mayor and the Police Commissioner.

Mr. Lopez believed more training would result in better security services. "It would definitely give a lot of people more confidence on the job," he said.

Mr. Hill would not go into detail about the contract negotiations with the company but said, "We're pretty far apart. At this point, we're not negotiating."

No Taylor Law Restrictions

The union, in accordance with its contract with AlliedBarton, has given 45-day notice of a possible job action, but any work stoppage would require ratification by the members. Because the workers are technically private-sector employees, they are not barred from striking under the state's Taylor Law.

"Security officers, particularly post- 9/11, are the first line of defense in this city," said Mr. Hill. "If we're going to hold them up and talk about a city where security is that important, then we should be paying the people and giving them a decent wage, decent health-care, and give them decent training so that they can respond in the way we expect them to."