For Penn's security guards, small steps of improvement may now be the best option.
After a setback involving union support in September, campus groups are now focused on workers' rights, with the controversial prospect of unionization seen as a step in the distant future.
Fabricio Rodriguez, head of Philadelphia's Jobs with Justice chapter, said the Service Employees International Union - which previously tried to unionize the guards - pulled out in September, dealing a blow to the guards' effort.
With SEIU out of the picture, there is no union currently present to represent the guards' interests, Rodriguez said.
Now, Jobs with Justice, a national labor-rights group, is looking to the long-term: The organization has since collected contact information from over 300 interested guards to keep them connected.
SEIU officials did not return calls for comment.
The guards are now relying on the Student Labor Action Project - made up of students dedicated to improving security guards' rights - as well as the Undergraduate Assembly and University officials to improve some more basic problems.
The Penn-affiliated organizations have all consistently said they will not take a stance on the unionization issue but are working together to address other concerns.
Last Wednesday, SLAP met with officials from the Division of Public Safety to discuss issues relating to the guards' current meeting place, the sanctuary in the Rotunda, located at 4014 Walnut St.
UA member and SLAP co-founder Hayling Price said the location had inadequate heating and lighting.
As a result, Division of Public Safety spokeswoman Karima Zedan said, DPS has added additional heaters and lighting to the space and will move the meeting place by May 15 to a new $1 million facility inside the Hub at 40th and Chestnut streets.
Guards say that moves like this one are a step in the right direction, but many are still unhappy with more overarching issues, like compensation and turnover rates.
George Darrah, who was recently transferred off campus, said he just wants AlliedBarton - the subcontractor the employs the guards - to be more responsible.
"Right now, they're not accountable - they fire and hire at will," he said.
But AlliedBarton spokesman Larry Rubin says the company can't understand why a union is necessary, pointing to the results of an internal survey completed last year that showed over 80 percent of Penn's guards responding positively to six questions about their working conditions.
But Price questioned its accuracy, saying that the surveys are conducted by a supervisor who watches the guards as they fill them out.
"Guards aren't going to give their supervisor a negative review if they're standing there watching," Price said.
AlliedBarton would not say how the survey is conducted.
To try to remedy those problems, DPS scheduled a meeting for this week to give guards an opportunity to voice their concerns without AlliedBarton supervisors present, Zedan said.
The conflict between the security guards and AlliedBarton was started in the fall of 2005, when five security guards were transferred for presenting a petition to Penn President Amy Gutmann.
