The Daily Pennsylvanian
Five security guards at Penn were suspended and transferred away from the University earlier this year for what they say is their role in a citywide unionization effort.
The AlliedBarton Security employees had attempted to present a petition to University President Amy Gutmann stating their requests in late August.
The guards left the petition with Gutmann's secretary, as the president was out of the office.
AlliedBarton spokesman Larry Rubin refused to comment on the exact reason for the suspension and transfers of the five security guards but said that AlliedBarton denies that "it has interfered with the rights of the employees in any way."
"The AlliedBarton employees involved in the incident at the president's office," he said, "were removed from their posts at the University pending an inquiry into the appropriateness of their behavior."
The document in question carried the signatures of at least 200 security guards from Penn, Temple University and the Community College of Philadelphia.
Penn subcontracts its security services from AlliedBarton, so although the University was technically not the guards' employer, the five security guards said they were making an appeal to Gutmann for her support.
However, Domenic Ceccanecchio, the director of security and technical services at Penn, said that the issue is between the guards and AlliedBarton and that the University will not get involved.
The guards' chief complaints against AlliedBarton are what they call poor wages, benefits, working conditions and training as well as a high turnover rate among guards, according to Liz O'Conner, the Service Employees International Union organizing coordinator in Philadelphia.
O'Conner and the SEIU -- which has contacted the guards as part of a nationwide security-officer unionization effort -- say that the guards were suspended and transferred to break up unionizing efforts.
The issue is currently under investigation by the National Labor Relations Board.
Rubin -- who disputed all of the guards' complaints -- declined to elaborate.
He added that the five guards were all reassigned to "comparable" posts elsewhere in Philadelphia at the same pay rates and with the same hours.
Mitchell McClain, one of the suspended security guards, said he found his reassignment far from comparable, though.
After four years of working at the Quadrangle's Upper Gate, he was reassigned to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a position which he said is undesirable because it requires the guard to stand at all times while on duty.
"I knew it was a punishment post," he said, adding that the security guards at the museum generally regard the post as one of the worst possible.
George Darrah, another of the five guards, was transferred away from Stouffer College House after eight years at Penn to a position in Washington Square.
He was transferred to a building that will be closing at the end of the year and, when it does, he believes that he could be transferred "anywhere." He said that if he refuses to go to the new location, that could be used as grounds for his dismissal.
Because he does not have a car, Darrah was especially concerned about the prospect of being transferred outside of Philadelphia.
Rubin, however, emphatically said that AlliedBarton does not use "punishment posts" and added that guards are only transferred to posts that they can access via public transportation.
He also said that while the security industry's average turnover rate is 150 to 200 percent per year, AlliedBarton's is 50 percent.
Ceccanecchio said that the turnover rate at Penn is roughly in line with AlliedBarton's national average.
Still, Darrah says there is too much turnover.
"They hire people and turn around and fire them two weeks later. There's something wrong with the way they're hiring," he said.
Unionizing efforts -- including meetings and the petition -- have been going on at the University for the last 10 to 12 months, McClain said. Similar efforts are ongoing at Temple and Philadelphia Community College.
While Darrah said that efforts to unionize at Penn continue, McClain believes that success will be difficult to achieve. Many guards complain about AlliedBarton, he said, but he believes they are too afraid to do anything.
Union question - 5 AlliedBarton security guards leading Penn union efforts were transferred after submitting petition to Gutmann - AlliedBarton denies any violation of securityemployees' rights
