PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM BECOMING KNOWN FOR SOMETHING BESIDES ART: National Debate About Union Organizing Turns Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM BECOMING KNOWN FOR SOMETHING BESIDES ART: National Debate About Union Organizing Turns Philadelphia

When the security officers at the Philadelphia Museum of Art have rallied against a recent roll back of their $.25 per hour raise, they could have never guessed that there modest cause could become an example of in a nation-wide debate over the Employee Free Choice Act. That is just what happened after an article by Sarah Jaffe appeared this week on the web-site of The Nation Magazine.

The security guards began organizing in 2007 in hopes of joining a labor union with the help of local workers' rights group, Jobs with Justice. After they began their organizing drive the activists were soon surprised to find out that they had few options in the union world.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is a recognizable icon even to those who have never set foot in the city. Immortalized in the movie Rocky, when a sweatsuit-clad Sylvester Stallone bounded up the stairs while training for his big fight, the museum became a symbol of the working-class tenacity that Philadelphians are known for.

On September 6, those steps will host a different kind of blue-collar battle: the museum security guards will be holding a rally in support of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) and their right to form a union.


“Guards have special circumstances under the law. They are almost no unions that can organize security officers because Section 9 B 3 of the National Labor Relation Act” says Fabricio Rodriguez of Jobs with Justice.

As the article points out, this section of the National Labor Relations Act, the national law which governs how unions are formed, prevents security guards from join unions that have any other type of workers besides security guards through a Labor Board supervised election.

After meeting with many different unions, the security officers found no groups that could take them and no security guard only unions who were willing to help. Last year, they decided to try their hand at forming their own union. A group of security officers from the museum began signing up their co-workers on Philadelphia Security Officers Union sign-up cards. They have signed up a majority of the employees that work for the main security firm on the property, AlliedBarton. The workers now want majority sign-up union recognition. This is one provision that labor unions want included in the hotly debated Employee Free Choice Act that is expected to come up for a vote in Congress later this year.

“We knew that this would not be enough, especially if the company began using illegal tactics again.” says Thomas Robinson a long time activist and AllieBarton security guard. Thomas and four of his colleagues were illegally suspended in 2006 for organizing at the University of Pennsylvania. Three of the five workers were returned to their posts at the university after students protested their suspensions.

“It is hard enough if you have an established labor union supporting you. We simply want to exercise our rights, but we know that without labor lawyers to make sure that our rights aren’t violated, it will be very hard,” says Jennifer Collazo, a security guard who is one of the organizers at the museum.

The union says that that they will continue to try to improve benefits and wages, which only go as high as $18,000 for the average guard, even if winning a union against a big corporation seems out of reach. They hope that the arrival of the new director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Timothy Rub, will prompt work place improvements.


“This is why we need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. Labor law reform isn’t about protecting so-called “special interests” it’s about protecting you and your neighbors, normal working folks,” says Juanita Love, a security officer for another security company at the museum.

Badges, Budgets and Betrayals 1

The Philadelphia Officers and Workers Rising (POWR) campaign has been building a movement for family-sustaining wages since 2005.

It is a complex story involving SEIU, AFSCME, sub-contracting, Democratic mayors, 9-11 and the fight for the Employee Free Choice Act. If you want to see how the current system of labor law is slanted against the rights of workers and why we need real labor law reform, not just for union but for American workers in general, then this video series is for you!

During the next few weeks, the Philadelphia Security Officers Union will try, against all of the odds, to establish their independent union. This series will document that effort.

Museum Receives Gift From Guards

Union Endows CEO With Doughnuts

Philadelphia, PA- Administrative workers at the Philadelphia Museum of Art will be met by cheerful union activists offering free doughnuts as they arrive to work tomorrow. The activists hope that their gesture will prompt the workers to help them get a meeting with interim museum CEO, Gail Harrity.

Since 2007, the activist group Jobs with Justice has been trying to get museum leaders to meet with the Philadelphia Security Officers Union, a local worker association.

"I have spoken on the phone with the head of Human Resources, the head of Contracting, and others," says Fabricio Rodriguez, Executive Director of Jobs with Justice. "They act like they want to help but it always ends in them saying that they will not meet with us."

Last week, the activist group, along with members of the union and local labor leaders, attempted to hand-deliver a meeting request letter, only to be turned away at the door.

There is hope that the free pastries and the hand bills will get someone close to the CEO to encourage her to finally fulfill requests for a meeting.

The security officers have two main objectives: to reverse the cancellation of their $.25 per hour annual raises, and to make plans to take their earnings up to family-sustaining levels.

Mr. Scarvo is wrong on EFCA

An article in yesterday's Scranton Times Tribune gives us the perspectives of Mr. Frank Scarvo, a manager for Keystone Automotive.

In Mr. Scarvo's opinion, the binding arbitration provision of the Employee Free Choice Act would harm employees. He also says that the current workplace regulatory agencies are sufficient. It is easy enough to discover with some research or, as many workers have found out through first hand experience, that this is untrue.

Mr. Scavo should know that there are many dirty tricks that employers use when they don't want to deal with the union that their employees worked hard to form and win. Most commonly, they draw out the collective bargaining process with excessive appeals. This unfair practice of forestalling process is hardly uncommon.

In fact, I came across a study on the American Rights at Work website conducted for the U.S Trade Deficit Review Commission. This 2000 study found that 32% of workers who have chosen to from or join a union remain without a union contract a year after having won their election.

Most of all, however, Mr Scavo gives too much credit to the current government regulatory agencies. Also in 2000, my father was refused the right to take lunch at the gold mine where we worked in Juneau, Alaska. He was fired - illegally - for the unspeakable act of taking his lunch in dignity. He used every legal remedy given to a worker with no income. Still, it took the Mine Safety and Health Administration nearly three years to recognize my father's right to take a lunch break in a clean and safe environment.

To deal with the indignities and abuses that innumerable workers face on a daily basis, the most effective means of self-empowerment is a union. The Employee Free Choice Act would give those workers who need change a reasonable option for remedy, a union of their choosing.

New Museum CEO Rub Welcomed By Philadelphia Security Guards: Guard Union Requests Talks

Philadelphia, PA- A delegation of security guards from the Philadelphia Museum of Art and their supporters in Cleveland, Ohio and Philadelphia, PA plan to hand-deliver a letter to Timothy Rub the newly-named, incoming CEO of the Philadelphia Museum of Art asking for a dialogue about working conditions.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art named Mr. Rub the new director on June 30.

The Philadelphia Security Officer’s Union began its campaign to organize the security guards at the museum in 2007. The union was able to win paid sick-leave in September of 2008 and is now hoping that Rub will be more open to dialogue that his predecessors.

“We have been reaching out to museum leaders but they have never agreed to meet with us,” states Thomas Robinson, Chairman of the union.

Union members talk about many problems facing security officers at the museum: from unaffordable health care to the lack of training and low-wages, including a recent role back of the expected annual $.25/hour raises.
“I hope that Mr Rub is sympathetic to how unfair it feels to have your raise taken away,” States Jennifer Collazo a union member and guard at the museum.
“The most that we could have gotten with our raise was $520 per year. Mr Rub lost more than that last year” said Collazo, referring to media reports that Mr. Rub had to have his pay reduced by 15% last year from $400,000.
The Philadelphia Security Officer’s Union will be supported by local labor support group Jobs with Justice as well as by the Jobs with Justice affiliate in Cleveland, Ohio.