LOS ANGELES – Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Security Officers United in Los Angeles Local 2006 today overwhelmingly voted to approve their first union contract. The contract is the best-ever of its kind in the country, raising total compensation – wages and healthcare – by nearly 40 percent.
For the first time ever, private security officers will receive affordable family health care; guaranteed annual wage increases; paid sick days, holidays and vacation; increased training and a career ladder to professionalize the industry. “We fought for this union contract so our families would have a better future and also for those security officers who will come after us,” said
Michael Johnson, security officer on the bargaining committee. “The new training program will help more people get into security jobs now that we’ve made it a good career that you can raise your family on.”
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This historic contract is about increasing protections for every Angeleno, from the families in South L.A. who will see needed healthcare benefits for the first time, to the office workers downtown who will get better trained security officers guarding their lives," said Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa, who was instrumental in bringing together the security officers union with the building owners and their security contractors to reach a settlement.
NEW $1 MILLION DOLLAR TRAINING PROGRAM
SEIU and Robert F. Maguire, CEO of Maguire Properties have each pledged $500,000 toward establishing a training center for private security officers in South Los Angeles, where most security officers live. The training center location and curriculum will be established by a working group comprised of members of the union, representatives of the security contractors and members of the community. “Now that we have our contract we can get rolling on the training center,” said
Faith Culbreath, President SEIU SOULA Local 2006. “This is the next step in professionalizing security. Continuing our work with the community, we will make sure that these jobs remain good jobs for mostly African American workers in Los Angeles so we can all create a better future together.”
“We know that ‘you get what you pay for’ and we’ve always been committed to higher wages, better healthcare and improved training for security officers because we know it will increase tenant security and value of our properties while at the same time make a big difference for working families in our city,” said
Robert F. Maguire, CEO of Maguire Properties. “We’re very proud to provide seed funding for this important training program and encourage other building owners to support the center as well.”
COMMUNITY REACTION
“This is a victory for our hard working security officers and their families to be sure, and it is also a victory for all of us in the community. Once again we see that when we fight together we win! We deeply appreciate the collaborative untiring efforts of our union leadership, security officers, elected officials, and faith and community leaders. Without all of us doing our part this day would not be possible. Most of all I thank the God of justice who is even able to bring corporations to terms with the unequivocal demands of equity,” said
Rev. Dr. Lewis E. Logan II, Senior Pastor Bethel AME Church in Los Angeles and leader of the Stand for Security Coalition. “While it is tempting to revel in the euphoria of this victory our work as a progressive
collaborative is only beginning. Now we must ensure the security of these new better paying jobs in order to protect our recently realize economic and social gains,” Logan said.
AGREEMENT
The five-year pact is with the security firms that service 80% of the commercial real estate throughout Los Angeles County including Universal Protection Services (UPS), ABM Security Services (ABM), Securitas, Guard Systems and Allied Barton. The contract, if ratified, would cover 4,000 workers at hundreds of worksites throughout Los Angeles County in commercial office buildings 75,000 square feet and above. The Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) took part in the negotiations between the security contractors and the security officers union.
Today’s announcement marks an end to the negotiations that began in June 2007. Security officers struggled against the city’s corporate building owners for more than five years to form the union of their choice with SEIU. SEIU Security Officers United in Los Angeles (SOULA) Local 2006 was established in June, 2006.
NATIONAL IMPLICATIONS
SEIU’s national “Stand for Security” campaign is the largest organizing effort of mostly African American workers in history, with the potential to impact the lives of up to at least 200,000 security workers and their families nationwide. That’s hundreds of thousands more than the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters organized in the 1920s and 1930s, a watershed moment that helped form the black middle class.
Private security is one of the top ten fastest growing industries nationwide, with more than one million private security officers working in America today. That’s more than twice as many police officers. Nationally, the industry is dominated by African American workers. Nearly 70% of Los Angeles security officers are African American.
National private security firms Securitas, Allied Barton, ABM Security and Universal Protection Services that negotiated the contract for Los Angeles guards will also meet the security officers’ union SEIU at negotiating tables in major cities nationwide this year. Contract negotiations for guards in Seattle and Minneapolis are already underway, followed by Washington, D.C., and Boston.
SEIU is the nation’s largest security officers union, representing 55,000 nationwide.