Campaigners for security officers across Los Angeles County, the majority of whom are African Americans, have expressed cautious optimism in their battle to unionize the industry and secure better pay and improved working conditions.
Nearly 70 percent of security officers are black and live well below the poverty line, according to the Stand for Security Coalition, an advocacy group comprised of security officers, union activists and church and community leaders.
The group said the majority of security guards in Los Angeles County earn minimum wage and have no sick leave, health insurance, or bereavement benefits. The coalition also said the industry suffers from a high employee turnover rate, which hurts the building owners themselves and compromises the safety of the buildings and the security officers and employees.
“All we’re asking for is decent pay and working conditions,” said Joe Matthews, 50, a security guard with 19 years service. “I am currently the head security officer at a three-building, four-stories-high site in Pacific Palisades, making $10.25 an hour. We are constantly understaffed and I continually have to train new guards.”
The coalition accuses the county’s wealthiest corporate landlords of denying security officers their civil rights and freedom to form a union, while in other U.S. cities like Chicago, New York and San Francisco, some of those same owners are paying union wages through the Service Employees International Union.
For instance, in Chicago, security officers earn an average of $14 an hour and enjoy full benefits.
“It’s one of the few jobs readily available to men and women in our communities,” said Jayson Pope, a Los Angeles Service Employee union organizer. “But we hear the same old story. The security contractors say it’s the building owner’s fault, the building owners say it’s the contractors.”
Contacted by The Wave, major security contractors, including Universal Protection Service, ABM/ACSS, Securitas and Allied-Barton, refused to comment.
The same line was taken by the city’s major landlords including Equity Office Properties, JP Morgan Chase &Co. and Jamison Properties.
“BOMA has no comment at this time on security guard unionization,” said Barbara Harris, president of the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA), in a statement. “BOMA is not an employer — our members employ security contractors who employ the guards.”
However, after an intense six-month, campaign which last month culminated in a march and rally downtown, the coalition is due to meet with the Building Owners and Managers Association on August 1.
“I think we’re poised to win,” said Gloria Walton, a co-coordinator of AGENDA, a South Los Angeles justice organization that is part of the coalition. “When we all stand unified there is usually always a victory.”
Maguire Properties, the largest downtown Los Angeles office building owner, has already expressed support for a citywide union contract. Victory for the security guards may now just be a matter of convincing the other major building owners to follow suit.
It is estimated that if corporate landlords agree to pay security guards the same wages and benefits they already pay janitors, a majority of whom are Hispanic, it would put more than $100 million every year into the communities of South Los Angeles, where most of the workforce lives.
“This is a burning bush issue concerning human and civil rights,” said Bishop Louis Logan of Bethel AME Church, a coalition spokesman. “I think we’re extremely close to that goal. We’ve already received recognition from Maguire Properties that they won’t stand in the way to organize the security officers. The door’s open and now we are just trying to get in.”
