San Francisco’s security workers took to the streets Sept. 24 to 28 for a week of direct action to demand the city’s
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It was the first strike of its kind in San Francisco.
Security workers protect high-rise commercial offices in the downtown area for some of the richest property owners in the country. While these corporations are enjoying record-breaking profits, the security workers are relegated to poverty wages with no healthcare.
Job responsibilities for security workers are high, yet they find themselves on the bottom of a growing service industry that has pushed down the standard of living of workers in this country to record lows. Mostly people of color and new immigrants, San Francisco’s security workers earn less than everyone else in the city’s commercial property buildings, including window washers, parking attendants and janitors.
Irene Flores of the Service Employees International Union told PSLweb.org that the strike and action helped “the contractors to see the strength of the workers” and in turn bolstered the union’s hand at the bargaining table.
Flores also commented that the struggle of workers in San Francisco was part of a larger national struggle for better working conditions for security workers.
