When security officers at the Philadelphia Museum of Art rallied against a recent roll-back of their $0.25/hr raise, they never guessed that their efforts would become an example in the nationwide debate over the Employee Free Choice Act. That’s what happened after an article by Sarah Jaffe appeared on the website of The Nation Magazine.
The guards hope that the arrival of the museum’s new director, Timothy Rub, will prompt workplace improvements. Thus far, they have they tried to communicate with Mr. Rub via written letters and phone calls. Their requests remain unanswered, so the guards decided to translate their message into a language sympathetic to the ears of the museum leaders: art. Today, the film entitled “Welcoming Change: A Message To Timothy Rub,” directed by David Stuart Randle from local media organization Media Mobilizing Project, will be released on the internet and will premier on screen at 4205 Chestnut St at 6:30 pm. The film will also be mailed to 100 local churches.
The security guards, with the help of Philadelphia JwJ, began organizing in 2007 in hopes of joining a labor union. After they began their organizing drive the activists were soon surprised to find out that they had few options in the union world.
Guards have special circumstances under the law. There are almost no unions that can organize security officers because Section 9(b)3 of the National Labor Relation Act prevents security guards from joining unions that have any other type of workers besides security guards. After meeting with many different unions, the security officers found no groups that could take them and no security-guard-only unions who were willing to help.
Last year, the guards decided to try their hand at forming their own independent union. A group of security officers from the museum began signing up their co-workers on Philadelphia Security Officers Union sign-up cards. They have signed up a majority of the employees that work for the main security firm on the property, AlliedBarton, and are now asking for majority sign-up union recognition.
Majority sign-up is one of the provisions in the hotly debated Employee Free Choice Act that is expected to come up for a vote in Congress later this year.
“We knew that this would not be enough, especially if the company began using illegal tactics again.” says Thomas Robinson, a long time activist and AllieBarton security guard. Thomas and four of his collogues were illegally suspended in 2006 for union organizing at the University of Pennsylvania. Three of the five workers were returned to their posts at the university after students protested their suspensions.
“It is hard enough if you have an established labor union supporting you. We simply want to exercise our rights, but we know that without labor lawyers to make sure that our rights aren’t violated, it will be very hard,” says Jennifer Collazo, a security guard who is one of the organizers at the museum.
“This is why we need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. Labor law reform isn’t about protecting so-called “special interests” – its about protecting you and your neighbors, normal working folks,” says Juanita Love, a security officer for another security company at the museum.
The union says that that they will continue to try to improve benefits and wages, even if winning a union against a big corporation seems out of reach. The security guards earn between $15,000 and $20,000 per year. This figure is not only below the Federal Poverty Guidelines for a family of four ($22,050), it is possibly in violation of the city-mandated Prevailing Wage, a wage established for service workers employed at “city-related” properties.
You can keep up with the security guards’ campaign at http://phillyjwj.blogspot.com/.
Fabricio Rodriguez is an organizer with Philadelphia Jobs with Justice.
