-Caveat Lector- Black Workers Worry About Being Displaced
By Sonya Geis Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, July 1, 2006; A03 LOS ANGELES -- Eric Lee delivered a rousing speech to union organizers gathered from around the country at a black church in South Central Los Angeles. They whooped and cheered and then hit the streets, launching a campaign by the nation's largest labor union to organize Los Angeles's security guards, most of whom are African American. Despite the upbeat words, Lee, chief operating officer for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles, has real concerns about the union effort. Not that it would fail, but that it would succeed. Lee and other black leaders are worried that a strong union could backfire, pushing black workers out of an employment sector they dominate. It would not be the first time. The ranks of this city's hotel workers and janitors were once mostly African American, but their standing was undercut by waves of immigration and lower-paid workers. As more Latinos were hired in nonunion hotel and janitorial jobs, the union all but disappeared, leaving today's labor officials with bitter memories of the 1980s. In the 1990s, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) reorganized the city's janitors, but by then, the workforce was mostly Latino. Many African Americans in Los Angeles have watched resentfully as Latinos replaced them not only in low-wage jobs, but also in many traditionally black neighborhoods. Simmering tensions between the two groups occasionally boil over in school shootings, jail violence and hate crimes. Among security guards today, Lee said, "the underlying feeling is, we need [a union], we want it, and when is it going to happen." Still, he said, "Some say, 'Why should we do this?' because of what happened to the hotel workers and janitors." This week, the SEIU launched a campaign to collect pro-union signatures from 3,500 of 6,000 private security officers who guard Los Angeles buildings. The union estimates that nearly 70 percent of the officers are black. A related effort to organize security officers in nine other cities, including Washington, D.C., is underway. The average pay for security guards in Los Angeles is $8.50 per hour with no benefits or paid leave, according to the SEIU. Once benefits are factored in, that's $6 an hour less than the average unionized janitor. Turnover is high. Many guards receive little training and often work more than one job to make ends meet. Barbara Harris, president of the Building Owners and Managers Association of Greater Los Angeles, said the members of her organization "have not made a decision on their position" on the SEIU organizing drive. Half a dozen security contractors and building owners contacted declined to comment or did not return phone calls. But union officials are encouraged by the support of the largest commercial building owner in downtown Los Angeles. At a news conference on the steps of City Hall in April, Robert F. Maguire III, flanked by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and union officials, invited the SEIU into his buildings. Maguire, chairman and CEO of Maguire Properties Inc., said it would professionalize security and enhance the offices he owns. Union organizers said security officers they have approached so far are receptive to their message. "I'm all in agreement," Gregory Sawyer told the SEIU's Ron Reese and Sharrion Marshall after they asked him to sign a union card at the West Los Angeles office building where he works. Sawyer said he suspects race is a factor in the difference between security guards' wages and those of other building employees. "This industry being primarily black, it's not being addressed properly," he said. "I've seen every other service group is unionized -- car parkers, janitors. Why is it that every other industry is unionized and not security?" Ruth Milkman, director of the Institute of Industrial Relations at UCLA, said the security guard campaign looks like a conscious effort by SEIU to alleviate racial tensions, bringing Latinos together with African Americans under one umbrella. But Andrew L. Stern, president of SEIU, said racial politics played no role in the timing of the security guard campaign. Janitors were organized first because national labor laws make it easier for them to form unions, he said. The focus is on Los Angeles now because the recent agreement with Maguire, good relations with security-guard contractors and the support of local politicians make Los Angeles a good prospect for a new union chapter, he said. "We're organizing the security officers for a very simple reason," he said. "They work for the same owners and contractors as the janitors. They do a job that has huge import for people's safety and security. And they make less than the people who clean the buildings." Stern said the union is well aware of black workers' fears that organizing a union could be an invitation to employers to hire immigrant workers they perceive to be more docile and willing to work for less. "Los Angeles is a racially charged city, because it's a city in transition politically and economically. As jobs have been devalued, it's been at the expense of the African American community. They have every right to expect building owners to not use those same tactics they did in the '80s to break the [janitors] union," he said. "All of us are going to be watching to make sure that does not happen." The Rev. Lewis E. Logan III, senior pastor of Bethel AME church in Los Angeles, where the organizers held their rally, said he will also be watching. "Our group is planning to come together once a quarter after there is a union to make sure the same percentage of African American security officers who were part of the union at the beginning are still there later," Logan said. "We're not selling out our community." © 2006 The Washington Post Company www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substanceânot soap-boxingâplease! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'âwith its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright fraudsâis used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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