Employees of Brantley Security marching around the Katyn Massacre Monument in Harbor East. (AFRO/Photo by Roberto Alejandro)
Security guards fighting for their right to organize went on strike in Harbor East to protest what they said were unfair labor practices by their employer, Brantley Security. Arbitrary disciplinary actions on the job, refusal to recognize the guard’s right to form a union, retaliation for attempting to organize and poor working conditions were among the grievances aired at the demonstration.
David Carter, a security guard who started working for Brantley about 11 months ago, said he decided to join the organizing effort—being led by organizers for 32BJ SEIU, a property service workers union—after seeing a fellow guard be interrogated in the aftermath of a security breach that occurred after she was left to control a crowd of 150 people with just one other guard. Carter says that although company policy supposedly requires a verbal warning for a first offense, followed by a written warning and then a final, this is not what happened in the case of his colleague.
“They gave her a final warning for her first offense,” said Carter. “It wasn’t a verbal, or written, or anything, straight final. And right then and there that just triggered an alarm off in my head like, ‘OK, we have to do something.’”
David Carter, a security worker for Brantley Security, trying to organize with 32BJ SEIU. (AFRO/Photo by Roberto Alejandro)
Carter said guards are routinely tasked with controlling large crowds with little assistance and subject to arbitrary disciplinary action if something goes wrong.
The AFRO sought information about the protestors’ working conditions and wages, two issues raised in the press release announcing the demonstration, but union officials prevented the workers from addressing those issues, saying they feared retaliatory firings.
Jaime Contreras, vice president of 32BJ SEIU, did, however, address those issues when he spoke to the gathered workers at the demonstration.
“We’re going to show Brantley that we’re not going to tolerate unfair labor practices against the officers that work so hard every day to maintain their families on poverty wages. . . . They don’t pay you enough. And when you try to organize so you can fight for a better wage or a better standard of living, what do they do? They break the law and violate your rights,” he said.
ralejandro@afro.com