Black security officers march for freedom from poverty

“Every day that the wealthy corporate landlords delay our civil rights, they are robbing us of up to half a million dollars in economic opportunities for South Los Angeles,” said Rev. Eric P. Lee of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

If L.A.’s multimillion-dollar-a-year real estate industry paid security officers the same wages and benefits it has agreed to pay janitors, it would bring an estimated $100 million more a year into South Los Angeles, where most of the security officers live.

Nearly 70 percent of security officers in L.A. County are Black and live well below the poverty line for a family of four. Most full-time security officers must work two full-time jobs due to poverty conditions in the city’s security industry.

“I can’t support my family working security alone so I had to get a second, full-time job to try to make ends meet,” said security officer William Edwards. “Our only hope is to organize.”

L.A.’s wealthiest corporate landlords are denying mostly Black security officers their civil right and freedom to form a union, but in San Francisco, Chicago, New York City and other U.S. cities where officers have formed a union with Service Employees International Union (SEIU), they’ve won better training, wages, benefits, working conditions and improved public safety.

“Not since the civil rights movement has this community come together so strongly to fight racist policies,” said California Assembly Member Jerome Horton, who marched with security officers and led a delegation of elected leaders, clergy and community members into the headquarters of the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA).

More
http://sfbayview.com/070506/blacksecurity070506.shtml