Union launches bid to organize Boston area security officers

Yawu Miller

Halimatou Mack faced a dilemma as tough as any worker could face while working security back in February. Her relief did not show up and her supervisor would not step in to help.

Waiting at home with a 16-year-old babysitter were her three- and four-year-old daughters. The baby sitter had to leave.

“I called my shift supervisor and he said he’d try to get someone and get back to me,” Mack said. “He didn’t. When his shift was over, he left.”

Before leaving, however, the supervisor gave Mack a choice.

“He said you can go, but if you do, you lose your job,” she recalls.

Mack left the Kendall Square building 15-or-so minutes after her shift ended, lost her job and now has become somewhat of a poster woman for the Service Employee International Union’s latest campaign — organizing the guards working for Greater Boston security firms.

Her photograph and story went out on flyers the union is using to pitch its campaign to security guards working in buildings in Boston and Cambridge. The organizing campaign is part of a national effort the union has embarked on to expand its membership.

“This is a lot like the janitorial industry,” explains Rocio Saenz, SEIU local 615 president. “There’s heavy competition. The cost of the work is mostly labor. It’s driven by the lowest bidder.”

Like Mack, who was born in Ghana, many of the security guards in Boston are immigrants. The pay is low and the benefits are negligible.

“In many firms the health insurance is impossible to afford because of high premiums, vacation time is very little and the benefits just aren’t there,” Saenz said.

The SEUI push, launched in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, comes as the industry is growing. There are currently an estimated 1 million people working private security jobs in the United States. That number is expected to grow by 35 percent in the next ten years.

Sixty percent of the 5,000 or so people working security in Boston and Cambridge are immigrants, according to Saenz.

“It’s a much more vulnerable workforce and it’s easier to exploit them,” she said.

The private security industry is currently unregulated. And with the current atmosphere of lax regulation of business in the United States, abuse of workers’ rights is widespread, according to Saenz.

Security guards who worked for Allied-Barton — one of the three major firms operating in Boston — said they often find their pay checks missing hours.

“They tell you they’ll pay you what they owe you, but at the next pay period, you have to ask again,” said Cecelia Nyutu, who works for Allied.

A spokesman for Allied did not return phone calls.

Nyutu, who earns $11.50 an hour, began working with Barton Security last year before the firm merged with Allied Security. She is lucky. New hires at Allied-Barton are now paid $10 an hour.

While Barton paid guards up to $14 an hour, Allied-Barton now only pays up to $12 an hour, according to Nyutu.

Asked what is most difficult about her work environment, Nyutu cited a management that is callous to the needs of the workers.

“The worst thing is that we don’t have floaters,” she said, using a term for temporary workers. “Unless you work out something with another employee, you can’t go anywhere.”

Nyutu said Allied-Barton does not allow employees to take sick days without a doctor’s note. The kicker came early last winter when the firm sent a letter to employees warning them that they were expected to work longer hours during the holiday season.

“They’re so rude,” she said. “We’re never given a choice. It’s ‘either you do this or you lose your job.’”

Saenz said many of the workers she has spoken to complain that they have no bargaining power with the security firms and say their supervisors show them little respect.

The campaign to organize security workers will seek to draw support from religious leaders, politicians and community activists. Saenz said SEIU will also reach out to building owners and the companies that rent space in the buildings.

“We’re hoping everyone will come together and be with us,” she said. “Our goal is to take a cooperative approach to this issue.”

While Mack says she does not plan to return to working security — she is currently working in nursing — she says she will support the campaign to unionize.

Mack says that Allied owed her for 16 hours when she was fired and has still not paid her.