With heightened security awareness among New Yorkers following 9/11, there is one group of workers who seem to have been overlooked in the burgeoning security enhancement business. These are the security guards assigned to some 600 high-end office buildings in New York.
These security officers have been organizing to demand better treatment and are bent on “professionalizing” the security occupation.
A report, issued in February by the Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, characterizes the city’s security force as “ill-prepared to protect its public.” The report found security officer training to be outdated, wages low and turnover rampant.
Since it is estimated that some 40 percent of the 60,000 security force employed in the city are of Caribbean roots, their case for better conditions of employment should undoubtedly be a matter of concern to members of the Diaspora.
Eric Lambert, who mans a high-rise office building on Madison Avenue, migrated to the United States from St. David’s, Grenada, in 1990, after serving in his country’s police for four years. He was part of the Special Service Unit, a trained brigade tasked with handling crisis situations in the Caribbean region.
For the past 12 years, he has worked for four or five different security companies in New York and, as he intimated to CaribNews, he still does earn a livable wage. “I put my life on the line every day to protect people and property in my building. It is high time people recognize the importance of what we do,” he said.
Eric Lambert is part of a team of security officers furnished by a security company to the Madison Avenue building where he works.
He has seen the expense to which the management of the building has gone in upgrading security systems since 9/11. However, very little has been done to upgrade the skills of the security officers.
Through his own resourcefulness, he has been able to master the intricacies of high-tech equipment installed in his building, since as he sarcastically declared, “the supplier normally provides its own personnel to man the security equipment. However, we security guards still end up operating the equipment. We need to be treated like professionals and given adequate training and benefits, so we can make this career a future.”
Some 2,000 security guards are already represented by the SEIU Local 32BJ, the union which covers building service workers such as janitors and porters.
The recent campaign is geared to increase membership in the union with a view to negotiate better wages, securing benefits and raising the profile of this typically low-wage, entry-level occupation.
Mr. Lambert elaborated on the many meetings organized to bring together guards contracted by the various security companies and he recounted that in February a delegation went to Albany to lobby Council members to introduce legislation that would benefit security guards.
They have also met with members of the Black, Puerto Rican and Hispanic Legislative Caucus in order to plead their cause and have a demonstration at City Hall.
Guards’ wages now average between $9 and $10 an hour, with many making considerably less. Few companies offer health insurance or other benefits like sick days and vacation. As a result, turnover is high. Mr. Lambert now earns $13 an hour, but with two children to support, he lives on a tight budget. Also, without health insurance, any serious illness in the family could wipe him out.
He has been assured by the management of his building that the security contract includes enough compensation to provide for health benefits. However, such benefits are continually denied to the security guards.
This situation was also corroborated by a worker in another office building who maintains that, although he is hired directly by the management of the building, he has no medical coverage and he has had no increase in salary for the past eight years.
As Mr. Lambert points out, “keeping guards long-term is vital to any operation since familiarity with the building is important. We are the first responders in any kind of emergency.” He was adamant that there is consensus among the security officers that training is critical to acquire the new capabilities required for the job.
They are all ready to take advantage of a model 40-hour training program, developed by the 32BJ union that includes terrorism awareness and response, crime prevention and basic fire protection and extinguishing skills.
While state requirements mandate eight hours of pre-job training and a further 16 hours on the job, these standards are often ignored by the security companies in their haste to provide staff to meet their contractual obligation.
CaribNews also discovered that many of these security companies are managed by ex-police officers who seem adept at manipulating the system and therefore are not pressured to adhere to strict hiring requirements.
We were not successful in our attempts, however, to interview representatives from any other security companies.
There was a general impression among the security guards interviewed that they feel marginalized in current initiatives to beef up building security.
As Mr. Lambert aptly remarked, “Even the security guards in the Twin Towers remain the unsung heroes of the World Trade Center tragedy, although many perished in the line of duty.”
