Guards seeking higher wages through unionization efforts at Penn may find that they're already earning more than the national average, according to a recent study by the U.S. Department of Labor.
The study showed that unionization may not necessarily lead to higher wages for campus security guards. It found that the median hourly wage for security guards and private police officers in the Philadelphia area is $10.68, 66 cents higher than in the Chicago area, where the Service Employees International Union has a large presence. The national average according to the study is $10.10 per hour.
The SEIU has been leading unionization efforts for guards nationwide and on Penn's campus. Guards' major complaints have been poor wages, benefits and training and high turnover rates.
Drew Simmons, an economist for the Department of Labor, said that because private police officers typically make more money than security guards, these averages are higher than they would be if the study had not grouped the two jobs together.
Still, he said, it is fair to say that on average, security guards in the Philadelphia area make more per hour than security guards in the Chicago area.
Larry Rubin, a spokesman for AlliedBarton Security -- the company to which Penn subcontracts the hiring of security guards -- said that since more than 80 percent of security officers in commercial buildings in Chicago are unionized with SEIU, he believes the lower wages in that city are a result of the SEIU's dominance.
"They set the market," he said. "They have negotiated wages lower than our guards who are not union members."
AlliedBarton says that its guards' average hourly wage at Penn is $10.60.
"We're significantly above market at Penn," AlliedBarton CEO Bill Whitmore said.
SEIU spokeswoman Inga Skippings denied, however, that the union "sets the wages" in Chicago. She added that all SEIU-affiliated security guards in Chicago make between $11 and $13 per hour, significantly above what the Department of Labor found to be the citywide average.
AlliedBarton says that its hourly wage in Chicago for non-union security guards is $11.75.
Skippings cautioned against drawing conclusions by comparing two different cities.
"It's apples and oranges," she said.
She does takes issue, though, with AlliedBarton's claim that the average wage at Penn is $10.60.
"From the beginning, we've maintained that these officers make between $8 and $10 per hour," she said.
George Darrah, one of the AlliedBarton guards leading unionization efforts, said that he makes $10.23 per hour.
He said his major concern is that he started out at AlliedBarton nearly nine years ago but has only seen a $2.33 increase in his hourly wage.
Whitmore emphasized, though, that there is plenty of room for promotion on campus, as nearly all guard supervisors at Penn started out as guards.
Darrah and Skippings spent yesterday afternoon at Temple University, where they wrapped up a tour of three universities that was designed to raise publicity about the unionization effort.
At about 3:30 p.m., a contingent of guards and SEIU representatives went to Temple President David Adamany's office in an attempt to meet with him.
"We didn't get the response we were hoping for," said Skippings, adding that they were greeted only by one of the president's assistants and told that the school was going to stay uninvolved in the issue.
The tour also included stops at Harvard and Georgetown universities, where the guards and the SEIU asked the universities' administrations to support their unionization efforts.
At Harvard, the guards had a two-hour meeting with the university's vice president for labor relations, who at the meeting's conclusion said that he would study the issue.
Overall, Skippings and Darrah labeled the tour a success, saying that they were pleased with the response they got from students and administrators.
