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SAN FRANCISCO

Historic strike of low-paid security guards

Published Oct 13, 2007 7:55 AM

With large, loud and disciplined rallies and marches through downtown San Francisco, security officers ended a historic three-day strike against their employers, targeting three large companies including ABM, on Sept. 27. The security guards work in this city’s high-rise office buildings.


Day three of strike.
Photo: SEIU

Organized by their union, the 6,000-member Local 24/7 of the Service Employees International Union, the predominantly African American, Filipino and Latino security officers marched behind a banner reading, “Stop the Double Standard Now.”

The union is demanding that security companies and building owners improve wages and conditions for guards and sign a new union contract. Local 24/7 charges that employers maintain a double standard, paying these security guards less and providing fewer benefits than other workers in the same buildings.

The union is demanding wage and benefit parity with janitors in the downtown buildings who make an average of $5 more per hour and have better benefits.

This is the first-ever strike by security officers on the West Coast, according to the union. Company attempts to bring in strikebreakers were turned away by the militant picket lines. Workers picketed at struck buildings, and held rallies at 6 a.m., noon and 4:30 p.m., during the three-day strike.

Strikers returned to work after three days in a good-faith gesture as negotiations resumed. One employer attempted to lock out the returning workers. But after the workers marched and occupied a building lobby, the lockout was ended and they went back to work.

On Oct. 4, however, after security companies refused to negotiate a fair union contract, security guards and their supporters marched through downtown, sat in and blocked an intersection.

Family medical care is a key demand. One security worker, Jason Chen, interviewed on KPFA Radio, said family medical care costs him $500 a month and eats up over one-quarter of his paycheck. Pay for security officers, according to the KPFA report, is around $10 to $12 per hour, which doesn’t go far in a high-cost-of-living area like San Francisco.

They have been working without a contract for three months since the old contract expired.

The California Legislative Black Caucus has issued a report on “Poverty Conditions in Private Security,” which highlights the plight of security officers working in office buildings owned by the likes of Morgan Stanley Real Estate and prominent San Francisco property millionaire and Democratic Party fundraiser Walter Shorenstein. Over half the security union’s membership is African American.

Local 24/7 modeled the campaign after an earlier Service Employees drive by downtown San Francisco janitors that resulted in substantial gains for the workers. Many janitors, as well as labor and community supporters, had joined picket lines to support the security guards.

San Francisco’s mayor and board of supervisors have urged building owners to negotiate with the union to close the wage gap and provide affordable health care, the union said. Local 24/7, formerly the International Union of Security Officers, voted to affiliate with the Service Employees in 2001.

For more information, go to www.stopthedoublestandard.org or call Gina Bowers at 310-291-5711.