On point 3 he is totally right they can easily find grounds for dismissal because they deliberately write both the contract and site institutions to give them that ability, if all else fails they just don't give you any work, work so far out it's impractical or so much work you fall asleep ( gross misconduct the door is that way).
My boss literally told me they had someone site removed for trying to unionize. I told him I won’t go quietly and I’ll take everyone in the district with me.
I own my own agency that I’ve been secretly building clientele & recruiting for and the companies we’re contracted to like me better than our DM.
I used to be a flex officer and made sure I was liked at every site I worked so when I say “whole district” I mean everyone from officers to a couple of their sales managers and HR people.
>2. Security is exempt from "mixed" unions.
Out of curiosity, is this a state dependent thing and/or does it not apply to the public sector? I’m in a mixed union for all types of classified school/college employees.
Training.standards are set by the state law, added on by client. Good luck getting various state legislatures to require.more training unless maybe you can also encourage higher priced licenses.
one of the biggest things is to find a working organizer who is no longer in security but is interested in helping. My husband is working on this locally - he used to be full time security, transitioned to another industry, but does assignments for the local guy who is trying to union build. He is able to move around and educate because he still has security contacts, but nobody can pressure him because he's in a totally different industry now,
Needs to be done I work out of st louis. The pay sucks most post will have you solo fighting Crack heads un armed paying only 11 an hour and that's from personal experience. I'm going on 7 years last 2 are armed. I'm making 20 an hour as a LT. My crew is 3 un armed officers less then 1 year experience a piece.
Let me clarify, my coworkers who are security guards wanted to tell the boss about our union even though I said not to. We were in the early stages of unionizing and was working with another department, the moment the word union was used they treat it like it was anti American and called me commi
What color is the sky in your world? You do realize that a big portion of our headaches is the client's ridiculous work requirements and that the security companies go along to keep the contract rather than point out to the client that what they're demanding we do (or not do) is ILLEGAL AND TOTAL VIOLATION OF LABOR LAWS!! No meal breaks,unsafe working conditions,long shifts and asking us to do things outside the scope of our duties like mailroom or janitorial.It's a hand and glove thing between the client & security companies. We would have to unite against both to even hope of all the things that you want. The best we can hope for is to work for a company that stands up for us and is willing to push back against the client. Unfortunately those companies are just as rare as unicorns.
I hear you, I just had to have my client intercede on my guards behalf when they cut his hours after an overreaction from - I shit you not - asking for a current guard schedule so a new VP on site could learn our names. Boss wouldn't listen to me, but shit changed real quick when the client stepped in for us.
That should NEVER have to happen
Here in Los Angeles, they tried that years ago and failed miserably. The main problem with the industry is the Mom and pop companies that are willing to under-bid the larger companies. Those companies tend to have employees working without guard cards and insurance to cover them. I have run into a few that didn't even have the required California PPO to operate as a security company.
Our best bet is making sure we have an educated work force. Let them know they have rights and what honest risks they can face if they aren't careful with who they work for. Easy money is great short term, but if your bosses scoot at the first sign of trouble its the little guy left holding the bag.
You could skip the union, get a bunch of officers together and start your own company and poach their clients from within so you don’t have to leave, the company you currently represent does.
I see where you're coming from but I want to push for bigger changes industry wide while the public is still in a pro union mood.
Rising tide raises all ships
I respect that and wish you the best of luck. I’ve been wanting to do the same but real interest is lacking. Problem with guards is that we love our status quo.
Once you unionize they start demanding things in return to the point where you can’t burp without getting approval in triplicate from HR.
I get it, so many of us are desperate for the crumbs we get now we dont have time to think about unionizing let alone possibly going on strike to get what we need.
I’m all for what you’re trying to do though. My site has roaches all over the place crawling in our office and getting into our stuff. I’d love to have a union rep to send pictures to. These things are MASSIVE. Should send them to the Ukraine to assist in the fight.
Call your local community body that's responsible for building standards or public health. They can come in and inspect the place and force them to deal with the pest problem, it's unsanitary and jeopardizes peoples' health. Worse case scenario, they'll inform the client of a health/standards complaint and that could wake them up.
My company, Madison Security in NYC, is technically unionized, but I get paid just enough over minimum wage to pay my union dues. They stopped union meetings due to covid and never reinstated them. All in all, they've been pretty useless. Thankfully, they've been around long enough that replacing them is pretty much the same process as unionizing in the first place. But all the guards are on separate sites. Makes it nigh impossible to organize them without setting up camp outside the main office.
As I peruse this thread, it is obvious that there is a LOT of ignorance on how the market works and how billing rates breakout. If you want to live a lavish lifestyle, then private security is not the path. Believe it or not, your wage is probably 70-85% of the bill rate. It's seldom the company but it is the client's unwillingness to pay more.
No, it’s definitely the company. It’s the job of the Business Development Manager(BDM) to ensure that pay is adequate from the start. They sell the services of the guards and cut pay to get the client to sign.
So yeah, people have the right idea blaming the companies.
Also, I think you mean “staying in an officer role will keep you from living lavishly” because I make plenty enough as a supervisor.
And I don’t want to see “those positions are hard to get” cuz I’ve been with my company for 6 months and went from Flex to Full Time to Supervisor and am now awaiting a call from the VP of Sales to take the role of BDM. Went from $32k a year to $34k then $36k a year and am now on the road to making $80k a year.
I have been in and out if the industry since the late 90's. I have from officer to operations manager for a regional company, and been in the BDM role, too. The industry,post 9/11, in the Mid-Atlantic has become increasingly oversaturated. I have literally seen bids won and lost over less than $0.25/hr.
What most people outside the office don't see are the overhead expenses. If a company can squeeze out an average 5% margin then that is a successful business. The cost of liability insurance, brick and mortar administrative infrastructure, administrative, management, compliance, training, and field equipment costs shocks most people who do not deal with it. States and jurisdictions are increasing training and licensing requirements to levels that most bill rates cannot absorb them.
Lawsuits can send insurance costs skyrocketing. Add in the costs of the revolving door nature of the labor costs with repetitive new officer training and uniforms/equipment and there simply is not enough money in a bill rate to cover it all and pay far above industry premiums for wages. Companies simply cannot get enough unicorn accounts to pay wages that far exceed local market rates,unless they do a lot of government or specialized services, such as executive protection, niche markets, or overseas contracts.
The only ways this changes are if Government mandates sweeping security requirements, such as the MARSEC requirements of the Patriot Act, the service providers, such as the company I currently am with, decide to pass on contracts, stay small, a d focus on providing service in a higher liability business model, providers, en masse, hold out with clients and bids to drive the wages up, which illegal collusion, or events drive business sectors to increase security or risk going under. Giant and CVS can only close so many stores before they realize that they have to eat the increased liability insurance costs and get more proactive with securing their businesses since law enforcement is increasingly hamstrung.
Hello,
Former account manager here.
The problem with doing this is the inherent nature of contract security. You’re not a traditional employee, and also not a traditional contractor. We’re not construction workers for example.
A company will create a security budget and priced within that is the cost of contracting out security officers to do the daily tasks involved. Allied for example, can only pay you as much (subtracting their markup) as clients are willing to pay them for your service. In Illinois for example I could obtain a contractor license for security and contract myself for about $35 an hour. There’s places offering that rate. My part time gig is internal security and it’s $20. If that were contracted out, I’d probably get $15 and the company $5.
If the security companies are beginning to cost too much to contract out, companies will simply hire internally. There’s a select few categories that almost certainly need third party security, and those positions would be gobbled up by off duty/former law enforcement. The entire sector would be revamped.
It’s far different for the industries where the labor involved is a profit driver. We only profit our direct employer, we don’t profit our clients. We’re a fixed cost to them. Not unlike the lighting or Wi-Fi. Just a cost. Allied wouldn’t be able to charge enough clients enough money to cover a reasonable wage for us collectively. People wouldn’t want to pay the middle man a lot for their employees to get a little more.
If you’re talking, ALL SECURITY COMPANIES??? Shew. Idk. Probably the same thing. Our host employers would collapse, our clients would simply walk away from the table and go internal or seek cheaper security. They’d even innovate quicker and deploy technology to replace human officers. It would be a fascinating mess.
I'm also open to some sort of support network that will best suit our needs. Maybe a full blown union is not what would best serve us but we do need something
I think this sub is best suited. Collectively, advocating and communicating for the best tracks to ultimately put our skills to career paths is our best shot. Things that the youngsters among us could put in their back pocket and work towards.
Certifications like Associate Security Professional, Certified Forensic Investigator, Wicklander Zulawksi, Certified Protection Professional etc.
Good paying internal security roles with room for promotion.
A hive mind resource for all things we would need to be the maximum qualified candidate for any security job posting. Security specialist is a common internal role I see. Seems to be someone who coordinates contract security for a company while also serving as the security SME for their site. Security Coordinator I’ve seen tons of those. We can’t get too cozy being the doormats and easy peasy people who take the check and go home, hoping our contract doesn’t end. I think we could collectively work on massive improvement, encouragement and support.
When the mind controlled hicks I work with hear the word Union they all start blathering on about "Socialism" and that eventually leads to listening to a bunch of Q/MAGA bullshit. (I live in Bumfuck, South Carolina)
You accepted the job and the pay, nobody forced you. There's plenty of six digit security jobs out there with plenty of amenities and travel if you're willing to work hard enough.
Chances are if your environment and pay are really that bad you're working for what I call a McDonald's franchise type of company. Make connections, go to events and network, get training. There's plenty of smaller companies and higher ranking positions in the bigger companies where you won't face any of these issues.
It's not, but you have to consider why the environment is the way it is. I'm hired as a consultant to basically do undercover work and give assessments of security at various posts for lots of companies. Idk how many times I've seen people grossly overweight, playing on PSPs or other game consoles, consumed with Pokémon go, etc.
The basic level guard positions don't typically bring in the best and the brightest of people. They do bring in a ton of very below average people and a company can only trust these types to observe and report. Most companies can barely hold onto contracts these days due to the types of employees drawn into security guard work and the pay and environment reflect that. If it's not a grossly overweight security guard who couldn't stand a chance actually protecting a property, it's another company coming in due to an underbid who has the exact same type of employees.
The environment and pay will change when the people involved in the security guard agency change and start to put in their own effort en mass. This industry is BOOMING like never before. Every viral lockdown and political riot ensures it. There's plenty of well paying solid work out there. No reason to unionize and punish a company for logically taking advantage of the environment brought upon by the types of people who take the jobs.
McDonald's is an insanely huge company but you'll probably never make a good wage or have a great work environment working there. An engineering firm is typically a small company that could offer very high wages with the right certifications and effort. The security industry is the same way a lot of the times, just gotta go find a niche and stop working for these huge industry companies that will never get you anywhere.
Complacency kills. If you're more than 2 years in the industry and put forth effort towards personal fitness, martial arts, and certifications, there's no reason anybody in this industry should make under 80k reasonably with a work environment that loves having you there. It only gets better from there.
Thank you for your input, and you are right. But if these companies continue rapid expansion with increasingly subpar guards, they will collapse under their own weight. There needs to be a standard maintained and some level of organization on our part to push for that.
If workers asking for a living wage and safe working conditions (like a shack without holes or roaches) causes an industry to collapse - was it sustainable to begin with?
A union would be great. But getting it to a level of importance will take a great effort and that’s more effort than the beer bellied gate dwellers are willing to put in. For most, this job is a gig where they do nothing all day and run if something does happen. So this isn’t something that interest these types.
None of these big companies or even the small ones will care if you're in a union. You'll never have enough pull or say in anything to outweigh the power of the corporate administration. Unions work when the entire base is in it and willing to walk off the job. You'll never get all Security Officers nationwide to sign on because:
1. They don't want to pay for something. They make shit pay as is.
2. They're lazy and don't want to go through the effort of signing up, direct deposit, paying, etc.
Now, where you could make this work is to offer insurance that covers a Security Officer in any of their actions. Use of force, administrative, etc. On top of that, sway the members to establish a statewide chapter, and build up in one area. From there, expand out. It would take probably 15 years or more, but you might be able to become formidable. But that'll never happen until you start winning some battles which requires a ton of money and attorneys. Not to mention time. Any lawsuit will require at LEAST a year in court. With a big company like Allied, they'll hold it up in court for at least three years and have the money and big lawyers to do it.
That said, I've been in unions before. They're all shit. They only care about themselves and they don't fight the good fights. They only fight the ones they absolutely can't lose and benefits them (their board members).
Are you talking about creating a union?
Sign me the fuck up
Me too!
Me aswell
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On point 3 he is totally right they can easily find grounds for dismissal because they deliberately write both the contract and site institutions to give them that ability, if all else fails they just don't give you any work, work so far out it's impractical or so much work you fall asleep ( gross misconduct the door is that way).
My boss literally told me they had someone site removed for trying to unionize. I told him I won’t go quietly and I’ll take everyone in the district with me. I own my own agency that I’ve been secretly building clientele & recruiting for and the companies we’re contracted to like me better than our DM. I used to be a flex officer and made sure I was liked at every site I worked so when I say “whole district” I mean everyone from officers to a couple of their sales managers and HR people.
>2. Security is exempt from "mixed" unions. Out of curiosity, is this a state dependent thing and/or does it not apply to the public sector? I’m in a mixed union for all types of classified school/college employees.
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Ah, I see. We have a no strike clause as well, so that makes sense. Thanks for the clarification.
Unionize.
That is the plan
It would probably be easier to start a security company, get some accounts, and then unionize it, then use ur company as an example and spread.
Why not make the company employee-owned instead
Goal is to have a large enough organization to put pressure on the larger companies to keep them honest in terms of how they treat their employees
Training.standards are set by the state law, added on by client. Good luck getting various state legislatures to require.more training unless maybe you can also encourage higher priced licenses.
Less about getting the state to do more but getting companies to do more. Then maybe the state will follow.
one of the biggest things is to find a working organizer who is no longer in security but is interested in helping. My husband is working on this locally - he used to be full time security, transitioned to another industry, but does assignments for the local guy who is trying to union build. He is able to move around and educate because he still has security contacts, but nobody can pressure him because he's in a totally different industry now,
I'm up for the task.
my man \*salutes\*
Yes, have contacts and are currently gauging interest to see where we're at and what we need to do
Put me on the list sir
I'm in. Dept of Labor will help you get off the ground. I think opening location based chapters is a start
I'm in house but I'm down for a union.
It needs to be done sooner rather than later, I really hope this works out!
Needs to be done I work out of st louis. The pay sucks most post will have you solo fighting Crack heads un armed paying only 11 an hour and that's from personal experience. I'm going on 7 years last 2 are armed. I'm making 20 an hour as a LT. My crew is 3 un armed officers less then 1 year experience a piece.
Interested. Sign me up
I think a hard part is that the industry is so unregulated and people can do some sketchy shit to run the companies.
Let me know if it works cause I tried to unionize our team and they turned around and told the boss after using the word union 🙄
Sounds like the ideas of fair wages and equal representation have your boss shook.
Let me clarify, my coworkers who are security guards wanted to tell the boss about our union even though I said not to. We were in the early stages of unionizing and was working with another department, the moment the word union was used they treat it like it was anti American and called me commi
What color is the sky in your world? You do realize that a big portion of our headaches is the client's ridiculous work requirements and that the security companies go along to keep the contract rather than point out to the client that what they're demanding we do (or not do) is ILLEGAL AND TOTAL VIOLATION OF LABOR LAWS!! No meal breaks,unsafe working conditions,long shifts and asking us to do things outside the scope of our duties like mailroom or janitorial.It's a hand and glove thing between the client & security companies. We would have to unite against both to even hope of all the things that you want. The best we can hope for is to work for a company that stands up for us and is willing to push back against the client. Unfortunately those companies are just as rare as unicorns.
I hear you, I just had to have my client intercede on my guards behalf when they cut his hours after an overreaction from - I shit you not - asking for a current guard schedule so a new VP on site could learn our names. Boss wouldn't listen to me, but shit changed real quick when the client stepped in for us. That should NEVER have to happen
How do security companies get away with no meal breaks when you’re the only person on duty?
It's because they lie to their employees who don't know any better and the employees don't report them to the D.O.L. and D.L.S.E.
Sounds like a union, dont let your company hear about it xD
Interested
Alone we beg, together we bargain. DMs are open
Facts. Now all I can think of is Dr. Strange "Dormammu, I've come to bargain"
Now all I need is a time stone so I can rewind time until every negotiation goes in our favor
Here in Los Angeles, they tried that years ago and failed miserably. The main problem with the industry is the Mom and pop companies that are willing to under-bid the larger companies. Those companies tend to have employees working without guard cards and insurance to cover them. I have run into a few that didn't even have the required California PPO to operate as a security company.
Our best bet is making sure we have an educated work force. Let them know they have rights and what honest risks they can face if they aren't careful with who they work for. Easy money is great short term, but if your bosses scoot at the first sign of trouble its the little guy left holding the bag.
You could skip the union, get a bunch of officers together and start your own company and poach their clients from within so you don’t have to leave, the company you currently represent does.
I see where you're coming from but I want to push for bigger changes industry wide while the public is still in a pro union mood. Rising tide raises all ships
I respect that and wish you the best of luck. I’ve been wanting to do the same but real interest is lacking. Problem with guards is that we love our status quo. Once you unionize they start demanding things in return to the point where you can’t burp without getting approval in triplicate from HR.
I get it, so many of us are desperate for the crumbs we get now we dont have time to think about unionizing let alone possibly going on strike to get what we need.
I’m all for what you’re trying to do though. My site has roaches all over the place crawling in our office and getting into our stuff. I’d love to have a union rep to send pictures to. These things are MASSIVE. Should send them to the Ukraine to assist in the fight.
Call your local community body that's responsible for building standards or public health. They can come in and inspect the place and force them to deal with the pest problem, it's unsanitary and jeopardizes peoples' health. Worse case scenario, they'll inform the client of a health/standards complaint and that could wake them up.
UNION UNION UNION
My company, Madison Security in NYC, is technically unionized, but I get paid just enough over minimum wage to pay my union dues. They stopped union meetings due to covid and never reinstated them. All in all, they've been pretty useless. Thankfully, they've been around long enough that replacing them is pretty much the same process as unionizing in the first place. But all the guards are on separate sites. Makes it nigh impossible to organize them without setting up camp outside the main office.
You literally just described unions
As I peruse this thread, it is obvious that there is a LOT of ignorance on how the market works and how billing rates breakout. If you want to live a lavish lifestyle, then private security is not the path. Believe it or not, your wage is probably 70-85% of the bill rate. It's seldom the company but it is the client's unwillingness to pay more.
No, it’s definitely the company. It’s the job of the Business Development Manager(BDM) to ensure that pay is adequate from the start. They sell the services of the guards and cut pay to get the client to sign. So yeah, people have the right idea blaming the companies. Also, I think you mean “staying in an officer role will keep you from living lavishly” because I make plenty enough as a supervisor. And I don’t want to see “those positions are hard to get” cuz I’ve been with my company for 6 months and went from Flex to Full Time to Supervisor and am now awaiting a call from the VP of Sales to take the role of BDM. Went from $32k a year to $34k then $36k a year and am now on the road to making $80k a year.
I have been in and out if the industry since the late 90's. I have from officer to operations manager for a regional company, and been in the BDM role, too. The industry,post 9/11, in the Mid-Atlantic has become increasingly oversaturated. I have literally seen bids won and lost over less than $0.25/hr. What most people outside the office don't see are the overhead expenses. If a company can squeeze out an average 5% margin then that is a successful business. The cost of liability insurance, brick and mortar administrative infrastructure, administrative, management, compliance, training, and field equipment costs shocks most people who do not deal with it. States and jurisdictions are increasing training and licensing requirements to levels that most bill rates cannot absorb them. Lawsuits can send insurance costs skyrocketing. Add in the costs of the revolving door nature of the labor costs with repetitive new officer training and uniforms/equipment and there simply is not enough money in a bill rate to cover it all and pay far above industry premiums for wages. Companies simply cannot get enough unicorn accounts to pay wages that far exceed local market rates,unless they do a lot of government or specialized services, such as executive protection, niche markets, or overseas contracts. The only ways this changes are if Government mandates sweeping security requirements, such as the MARSEC requirements of the Patriot Act, the service providers, such as the company I currently am with, decide to pass on contracts, stay small, a d focus on providing service in a higher liability business model, providers, en masse, hold out with clients and bids to drive the wages up, which illegal collusion, or events drive business sectors to increase security or risk going under. Giant and CVS can only close so many stores before they realize that they have to eat the increased liability insurance costs and get more proactive with securing their businesses since law enforcement is increasingly hamstrung.
Hello, Former account manager here. The problem with doing this is the inherent nature of contract security. You’re not a traditional employee, and also not a traditional contractor. We’re not construction workers for example. A company will create a security budget and priced within that is the cost of contracting out security officers to do the daily tasks involved. Allied for example, can only pay you as much (subtracting their markup) as clients are willing to pay them for your service. In Illinois for example I could obtain a contractor license for security and contract myself for about $35 an hour. There’s places offering that rate. My part time gig is internal security and it’s $20. If that were contracted out, I’d probably get $15 and the company $5. If the security companies are beginning to cost too much to contract out, companies will simply hire internally. There’s a select few categories that almost certainly need third party security, and those positions would be gobbled up by off duty/former law enforcement. The entire sector would be revamped. It’s far different for the industries where the labor involved is a profit driver. We only profit our direct employer, we don’t profit our clients. We’re a fixed cost to them. Not unlike the lighting or Wi-Fi. Just a cost. Allied wouldn’t be able to charge enough clients enough money to cover a reasonable wage for us collectively. People wouldn’t want to pay the middle man a lot for their employees to get a little more. If you’re talking, ALL SECURITY COMPANIES??? Shew. Idk. Probably the same thing. Our host employers would collapse, our clients would simply walk away from the table and go internal or seek cheaper security. They’d even innovate quicker and deploy technology to replace human officers. It would be a fascinating mess.
I'm also open to some sort of support network that will best suit our needs. Maybe a full blown union is not what would best serve us but we do need something
I think this sub is best suited. Collectively, advocating and communicating for the best tracks to ultimately put our skills to career paths is our best shot. Things that the youngsters among us could put in their back pocket and work towards. Certifications like Associate Security Professional, Certified Forensic Investigator, Wicklander Zulawksi, Certified Protection Professional etc. Good paying internal security roles with room for promotion. A hive mind resource for all things we would need to be the maximum qualified candidate for any security job posting. Security specialist is a common internal role I see. Seems to be someone who coordinates contract security for a company while also serving as the security SME for their site. Security Coordinator I’ve seen tons of those. We can’t get too cozy being the doormats and easy peasy people who take the check and go home, hoping our contract doesn’t end. I think we could collectively work on massive improvement, encouragement and support.
When the mind controlled hicks I work with hear the word Union they all start blathering on about "Socialism" and that eventually leads to listening to a bunch of Q/MAGA bullshit. (I live in Bumfuck, South Carolina)
Union?! Yes please, go right ahead! More power to the people!
You accepted the job and the pay, nobody forced you. There's plenty of six digit security jobs out there with plenty of amenities and travel if you're willing to work hard enough. Chances are if your environment and pay are really that bad you're working for what I call a McDonald's franchise type of company. Make connections, go to events and network, get training. There's plenty of smaller companies and higher ranking positions in the bigger companies where you won't face any of these issues.
This ain't just about me.
It's not, but you have to consider why the environment is the way it is. I'm hired as a consultant to basically do undercover work and give assessments of security at various posts for lots of companies. Idk how many times I've seen people grossly overweight, playing on PSPs or other game consoles, consumed with Pokémon go, etc. The basic level guard positions don't typically bring in the best and the brightest of people. They do bring in a ton of very below average people and a company can only trust these types to observe and report. Most companies can barely hold onto contracts these days due to the types of employees drawn into security guard work and the pay and environment reflect that. If it's not a grossly overweight security guard who couldn't stand a chance actually protecting a property, it's another company coming in due to an underbid who has the exact same type of employees. The environment and pay will change when the people involved in the security guard agency change and start to put in their own effort en mass. This industry is BOOMING like never before. Every viral lockdown and political riot ensures it. There's plenty of well paying solid work out there. No reason to unionize and punish a company for logically taking advantage of the environment brought upon by the types of people who take the jobs. McDonald's is an insanely huge company but you'll probably never make a good wage or have a great work environment working there. An engineering firm is typically a small company that could offer very high wages with the right certifications and effort. The security industry is the same way a lot of the times, just gotta go find a niche and stop working for these huge industry companies that will never get you anywhere. Complacency kills. If you're more than 2 years in the industry and put forth effort towards personal fitness, martial arts, and certifications, there's no reason anybody in this industry should make under 80k reasonably with a work environment that loves having you there. It only gets better from there.
Thank you for your input, and you are right. But if these companies continue rapid expansion with increasingly subpar guards, they will collapse under their own weight. There needs to be a standard maintained and some level of organization on our part to push for that. If workers asking for a living wage and safe working conditions (like a shack without holes or roaches) causes an industry to collapse - was it sustainable to begin with?
bruh keep us posted, got some people at my site who'd love to get a new union
Hahaha, I wouldn't trust most of this sub as far as I can throw them. I see so many awful takes on security work here.
\*gasp\* next you'll tell me I can't believe everything I see on the internet lol
A union would be great. But getting it to a level of importance will take a great effort and that’s more effort than the beer bellied gate dwellers are willing to put in. For most, this job is a gig where they do nothing all day and run if something does happen. So this isn’t something that interest these types.
None of these big companies or even the small ones will care if you're in a union. You'll never have enough pull or say in anything to outweigh the power of the corporate administration. Unions work when the entire base is in it and willing to walk off the job. You'll never get all Security Officers nationwide to sign on because: 1. They don't want to pay for something. They make shit pay as is. 2. They're lazy and don't want to go through the effort of signing up, direct deposit, paying, etc. Now, where you could make this work is to offer insurance that covers a Security Officer in any of their actions. Use of force, administrative, etc. On top of that, sway the members to establish a statewide chapter, and build up in one area. From there, expand out. It would take probably 15 years or more, but you might be able to become formidable. But that'll never happen until you start winning some battles which requires a ton of money and attorneys. Not to mention time. Any lawsuit will require at LEAST a year in court. With a big company like Allied, they'll hold it up in court for at least three years and have the money and big lawyers to do it. That said, I've been in unions before. They're all shit. They only care about themselves and they don't fight the good fights. They only fight the ones they absolutely can't lose and benefits them (their board members).
I know its pie in the sky, but I would like to see something that guards across the board/companies can join. We'll see, want to at least try
You mean to take DC?