Industry Group Aims To Unionize Los Angeles Guards

Jul 8, 2006 12:00 PM

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has dispatched more than 100 organizers and members to Los Angeles to sign up thousands of licensed security guards for a new union local.

The goal of the drive, say union leaders, is to secure signatures from more than half of the approximately 6,000 licensed security guards who are employed by five large security contractors in office buildings around Los Angeles county.

If they can collect about 3,500 cards, union officials said, they would be in a strong position to pressure security companies and building owners to quickly recognize a security officers' union.

“In a city with the greatest disparity between rich and poor, the L.A. security officers' drive is an unmistakable call for equal opportunity and the freedom of all workers to rise up and out of poverty,” said Andy Stern, president of Service Employees International Union (SEIU), who recently talked with officers who protect downtown high-rises.

The union's campaign is part of a national effort to organize guards in 10 cities, including Sacramento, Milwaukee and Washington, D.C. Union officials say that the opposition from Los Angeles building owners has been strong and that the high turnover and sprawling distances of Southern California slowed organizing.

The union said that security guards typically make about $6 per hour less in wages and benefits than janitors. In Los Angeles a unionized janitor can make $12 an hour or more, plus healthcare benefits. Most security guards earn about $8 an hour, according to the union.

In other news for L.A. guards, California assemblywoman Karen Bass of Los Angeles has introduced legislation to allow many security guards to arrest suspects.

Under provisions of the bill, security officers would need to undergo 88 hours of specialized training with the Los Angeles Police Department before earning arrest powers.

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