SEIU: Penn Contractor AlliedBarton Denying African American Workers' Civil Rights to Form a Union
Labor Desk
November 02, 2005
Race Issues Forum at Penn to Focus on Predominantly Black Security Officers' Civil Rights
A leading University of Pennsylvania contractor's mistreatment of its largely African American workforce and its tactics to block the officers' efforts to improve their lives by forming a union will be the focus of a campus forum tomorrow at Penn. Black security officers employed by contractor AlliedBarton Security Services will participate in a panel discussion: "Live with the Philly Five: Race, Worker Rights and Institutional Barriers from National Issues to Penn's Own Allied Guards," sponsored by the university's Race Dialogue Project, which explores ways that race affects the Penn community.
Five Penn security officers -- "The Philly Five" -- delivered a petition calling for better benefits, affordable health care, and better working conditions to Pres. Gutmann's office in August. After being suspended, they were transferred from their posts to off campus locations. Two officers have since been reinstated to their posts.
AlliedBarton security officers are overwhelmingly African American and often leave their posts at Philadelphia's most prominent colleges to go home to some of its poorest and least secure neighborhoods. A union contract for security officers in Philadelphia could bring more than $28 million a year in income into Philadelphia's poorest neighborhoods. Despite Allied's sizeable profits as the nation's largest U.S.-owned security firm, security officers receive minimal training, poverty wages, and many find health care is out of reach.
Penn security officers are part of the largest union organizing effort by black workers in U.S. history -- a national effort involving 100,000 workers to win living wages, affordable health care, more training and better working conditions by forming a union with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Civil rights organizations, including the Philadelphia chapter of the NAACP, and the United Minority Council, which represents 17 minority groups at Penn, have publicly supported the security officers' efforts.
A leading University of Pennsylvania contractor's mistreatment of its largely African American workforce and its tactics to block the officers' efforts to improve their lives by forming a union will be the focus of a campus forum tomorrow at Penn. Black security officers employed by contractor AlliedBarton Security Services will participate in a panel discussion: "Live with the Philly Five: Race, Worker Rights and Institutional Barriers from National Issues to Penn's Own Allied Guards," sponsored by the university's Race Dialogue Project, which explores ways that race affects the Penn community.
Five Penn security officers -- "The Philly Five" -- delivered a petition calling for better benefits, affordable health care, and better working conditions to Pres. Gutmann's office in August. After being suspended, they were transferred from their posts to off campus locations. Two officers have since been reinstated to their posts.
AlliedBarton security officers are overwhelmingly African American and often leave their posts at Philadelphia's most prominent colleges to go home to some of its poorest and least secure neighborhoods. A union contract for security officers in Philadelphia could bring more than $28 million a year in income into Philadelphia's poorest neighborhoods. Despite Allied's sizeable profits as the nation's largest U.S.-owned security firm, security officers receive minimal training, poverty wages, and many find health care is out of reach.
Penn security officers are part of the largest union organizing effort by black workers in U.S. history -- a national effort involving 100,000 workers to win living wages, affordable health care, more training and better working conditions by forming a union with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Civil rights organizations, including the Philadelphia chapter of the NAACP, and the United Minority Council, which represents 17 minority groups at Penn, have publicly supported the security officers' efforts.
Print
Email
