A labor union representing security guards stationed at dozens of municipal facilities, including the Staten Island Ferry Terminals and the Municipal Building, has reached a deal with the guards’ private employers that calls for as much as a 26 percent pay raise over three years and for the first time provides the guards with health insurance.þþThe contract, which will be announced on Monday, followed months of intense negotiations between the union, Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, and the companies, FJC Security Services of Long Island and Allied Barton of Conshohocken, Pa. This is the first agreement struck by Local 32BJ on behalf of the guards, who voted to join the union about three years ago.þþ“Security officers are really the first line of defense in most municipal and commercial buildings throughout the city, yet their pay is low and they have no benefits of any kind,” like paid vacations, health coverage or retirement plans, said Michael P. Fishman, president of Local 32BJ. “The greatest injustice here was that you had taxpayer money essentially funding poverty jobs, and this contract is a big step toward correcting it.” þþThe deal represents a significant victory for Local 32BJ, which has sought to unionize thousands of security guards as part of what it calls a push to raise living standards among black workers, who constitute the bulk of this work force.þþExecutives of the security companies could not be reached for comment on Sunday.þþIn an effort to cut costs by privatizing city services, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani outsourced the security of many municipal buildings during his second term in office. From then on, private contractors set the terms of employment for the guards, who do not carry guns. þþAlthough the city hires the contractors, it has no direct say on the salaries and benefits the guards receive. But Bloomberg administration officials have closely monitored the latest round of talks.þþThe agreement was hashed out late on Friday and will go into effect on July 1, when the guards’ pay will uniformly rise to $13.25 an hour from about $11. At the end of the three years, their hourly wage will have reached $14.35. Besides the employer-paid family health insurance, the guards will also get paid days off and advanced training for the first time. þþNegotiations, which began in November, had hit an impasse in recent weeks. On Wednesday, the guards voted to go on strike if a deal was not reached by Friday night, a potentially disastrous situation for agencies like the Human Resources Administration, Homeless Services and the health department, which rely on the guards to secure the buildings they occupy.þþLocal 32BJ has about 110,000 members, among them doormen, porters, janitors and some 10,000 security guards, including the 3,000 or so who work for the city. þþThe union endorsed Mark Green for mayor in 2001, but backed Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in 2005 and supported his successful effort for an extension of term limits last fall. Shortly after that, though, it ran an ad in the weekly labor newspaper The Chief criticizing the mayor’s proposed cuts to the public schools’ cleaning budget. þþThis year, Local 32BJ adopted an unusual approach to help decide which candidate it will endorse in the mayoral race. Earlier this month, it got Mr. Bloomberg and the city’s comptroller, William C. Thompson Jr., his leading Democratic rival, to spend part of a day with one of the security guards it represents. þþThe idea was to familiarize the candidates with the guards’ daily routine and difficulties, Mr. Fishman said.þþ“While people know the doormen and cleaners in our commercial and private buildings, they don’t know these security officers and they have a very different kind of interaction with them,” he said. “This was an important time to bring them to the forefront.”þþ
Source: NY Times
