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A union representing about 3,000 security guards in the Philadelphia area ratified a four-year contract with some of the region’s largest employers, securing higher wages and better benefits for officers who have been working on an expired contract for over a month.
The 32BJ division of the Service Employees International Union announced the new contract’s terms Monday.
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The security guards, who mostly work on the Temple, Drexel and Penn campuses and in high-rise buildings in Center City, joined another 4,600 employees in New Jersey, Washington D.C. and Northern Virginia to negotiate with Allied Universal, Colonial Security Services, GardaWorld, Harvard Protection Services and Securitas, according to Julie Karant, a media contact with the union chapter.
Allied Universal, the largest security employer in the country, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Contract terms include a $4.30 hourly wage increase to bring the hourly rate to $20.55, which the union chapter said represented the largest pay raise for security officers in its 91-year history.
Workers will also see fully employer-paid dental, vision and life insurance, three additional paid holidays and new short-term disability benefits. There are also protections from hairstyle discrimination, working mandatory overtime hours and unpaid disciplinary time if employees are found to be not liable for an incident.
Campus officers who typically don’t work during the summer will now be guaranteed to have their health benefits reinstated when they return in the fall. Employees with three years of seniority or more will receive an extra paid day off, and all job vacancies will be posted online.
“This was more than a union fighting for a contract,” Gabe Morgan, 32BJ SEIU executive vice president, said in a statement. “These jobs have the potential to be a path to the middle class that allows workers to live in the places they work so hard to protect.”
The union’s previous contract expired Sept. 30, and employees spent last month rallying for fair wages and more training. Legislation in Philadelphia City Council is pending that would enact minimum training standards for security officers.
“We are the people who protect this city from sunrise to sundown; the ones who stand in the cold, the rain, the dark,” Daquan Gardner, a Temple Hospital security officer, said in a statement. “We don’t wear capes, but every single day we carry courage on our shoulders. We didn’t just win a contract, we claimed dignity, respect and our rightful place in this city.”
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Molly McVety
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PHOTO: Danny Wild/Imagn Images
