Silicon Valley security officers to get immediate pay increases
Silicon Valley CA Aug 14 2018
The valley’s tech companies employ some of the highest-wage workers in the Bay Area.
But the workers who guard, clean and serve food at the companies’ shiny headquarters have long struggled to make ends meet in a high-priced region. In the past few years, those who have sought better working conditions and joined unions included cafeteria workers and shuttle drivers.
The security guards’ contract comes after more than five years of organizing and bargaining with four security contractors that provide guards for Facebook, Google, Genentech and others, the Service Employees International Union announced Monday. The group, consisting of 3,000 security officers, is the largest group of service workers to unionize in Silicon Valley, union spokesman Stephen Boardman said.
Many of the guards were making starting wages of $12 to $14 an hour — although some made more, depending on where they work — and will see immediate wage increases, with total increases of up to $1.20 by January, the union said.
The guards also negotiated improved health care benefits, and secured paid holidays for the first time. In addition, they won disciplinary protections and a right to grievance procedures.
In June, dozens of security guards protested their “poverty-level” wages in San Jose. Some of them said they were homeless and living in their cars.
One such worker, Elizabeth, said Monday that she remains homeless because she pays for a room for her autistic brother — but that the newly reached contract should help.
“I have some hope for the future,” she said. She is on the bargaining committee, and asked that her last name not be used because she fears retaliation from her employer or subcontractor.
The guards will see a boost in their health care benefits: 75 percent to 85 percent of health costs paid by their employers by the end of the four-year contract.
Elizabeth said health care is what drove many of the guards to vote for the contract.
“The medical benefits were just as important, if not more important, for some workers,” she said. In her case, she said she won’t have to work 16-hour days every day “once the medical benefits kick in.”
Eric Murphy, a security guard for Facebook employed by subcontractor Allied Universal, said Monday that despite the union’s gains through bargaining with the contractors, more work needs to be done.
“I think Facebook is still failing to meet its responsibilities to the community,” Murphy said. “Our next step now is to go to them directly.”
In the past, Facebook has said employing certain workers through contractors is “standard for our industry.” In 2015, the Menlo Park company instituted a $15 minimum wage for its contract workers.
“Facebook values the partnership with our security providers and we greatly appreciate our Security Officers and the tremendous work they do every day to keep our people and offices safe and secure,” a spokesman said Monday.
Of the four subcontractors companies, the union reached a contract with, Cypress Security and Allied Universal confirmed the news. G4S and Securitas have not yet responded to a request for comment Monday.
The Mercury News
