Organized Labor

Security officers represented by Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 24/7 reached a tentative agreement late November 30 with the Bay Area’s largest private security companies. The contract includes higher wages and family healthcare. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and prominent Bay Area building owner Shorenstein Properties were instrumental in bringing about the settlement, according to the union.

Security officers are the lowest paid contract service workers in commercial real estate properties where union janitors, window washers, parking attendants and operating engineers have wages you can raise a family on an full family healthcare.

The new five-year agreement covers more than 4,000 private security officers in San Francisco, Alameda, and Contra Costa Counties. They had been working under an expired contract since June 30, 2007, and conducted the West Coast’s first-ever strike of private security officers over three days in September 2007.

During the contract negotiations, the union held a series of marches in the downtown financial district, including an Oct. 4 action that saw elected leaders, labor leaders, clergy, students, and community supporters engaged in an act of non-violent civil disobedience. Twenty-three demonstrators were arrested when they occupied the intersection of Montgomery and Pine, located in the city’s downtown financial district, for 45 minutes.

“We’re willing to risk arrest today because we believe no one in San Francisco should ever have to choose between paying the rent or taking their kids to the doctor,” said former San Francisco Central Labor Council Executive Director Walter Johnson at the action. “In a first-class city like San Francisco, it is unacceptable that security officers have been working for almost a hundred days without a contract—this is not the kind of future we want for this community.”

Draped in blankets to symbolize security officers being “left out in the cold,” and wearing enlarged photographs depicting security officers in talks to win wages that support a family and access to quality, affordable health care, the demonstrators included San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council Secretary-Treasurer Mike Theriault, ILWU Local 6 Secretary-Treasurer Fred Pecker, Office and Professional Employees Local 3 Secretary-Treasurer Conny Ford, and Allan Fisher of AFT Local 2121.

The direct action protest coincided with contract talks for more than 4,000 of the area’s private security officers employed by Securitas, ABM, and Universal Protection Services and whom protect multibillion dollar properties owned by corporate giants such as Morgan Stanley. Last week, downtown security officers went on a three-day unfair labor practice strike to protest their employers’ use of intimidation, harassment, and other unlawful practices. The strike—the first strike among private security officers in the history of the city—was in response to the companies’ violation of security officers’ rights during an ongoing labor dispute over industry standards.

Over the past three months the security officers have received widespread support for the efforts to win a union contract with improved wages, access to quality, affordable health care, and better training standards. A coalition of elected leaders, clergy and labor leaders including the Congressional Black Caucus, the California Legislative Black Caucus, San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, and Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums called on the city’s real estate giants to end the double standards that keep security officers in poverty and ensure security officers have a good contract now. Assembly member Sandre Swanson (D-Oakland) and his peers in the Calif. Legislative Black Caucus released “Separate and Unequal,” a report that examines poverty conditions in the private security industry, and urged the leading property owners of commercial real estate to end the double standard.

Security officers work full time protecting multibillion-dollar properties but can’t afford to live in The City. Security officers earn on average $24,000 a year without access to affordable health care, while the janitors and other service workers in the high-rise office buildings earn wages you can raise a family on and get full family health care.

The workers were supported by other union members during the strike and subsequent rallies. Security guards rallied October 25 on Market Street and were joined by members of the Carpenters and other unions, as well as SF Supervisor Aaron Peskin and Assemblymember Mark Leno.