Jersey City NJ Jan 25 2013 Nearly 200 union workers and private security officers rallied on the Jersey City waterfront yesterday, braving the frigid temperatures to accuse a Pennsylvania firm of intimidating workers who want to unionize.
Harvard Protection Services, the Philadelphia-based security firm, has told workers it will fire them if they attempt to unionize during working hours, union officials and security guards told The Jersey Journal yesterday.
“Nobody can tell me I can’t organize,” said Chris Amato, a security officer in a Downtown office building.
Amato, 56, who works for Harvard, said his supervisor ordered him to remove a button emblazoned with the logo for 32BJ, a property-services workers union. Amato is hoping he and his fellow security guards can soon become members of the union.
“I’d like to be able to support my family,” he said. “And what I make now, I can’t.”
The roughly 200 workers assembled on the J. Owen Grundy Pier even tough temperatures barely rose over 20 degrees, and kept warm by banging on makeshift drums made of buckets and passing around hand warmers.
Kevin Brown, New Jersey director for 32BJ, which represents about 9,000 workers statewide, said Harvard’s employees are merely hoping for “raises and respect.”
“The workers are organizing because they’re barely paid living wages,” Brown said.
A phone call placed to Harvard seeking comment was not returned.
32BJ shared a Dec. 18, 2012 memo Harvard workers received in Pennsylvania that discusses “union coercion” of its employees.
“No talks, no solicitation or dealings with any unions or union representatives are permitted” on private property or during working hours, the memo reads. “Any security officer found to do so will be terminated on the spot.”
Ward E City Councilman Steve Fulop, who last week received the endorsement of 32BJ in his bid to become Jersey City mayor, told the crowd that union membership helps workers move into the middle class.
Jersey City should not allow businesses like Harvard to “intimidate” workers, Fulop said.
source-nj.com
Harvard Protection Services, the Philadelphia-based security firm, has told workers it will fire them if they attempt to unionize during working hours, union officials and security guards told The Jersey Journal yesterday.
“Nobody can tell me I can’t organize,” said Chris Amato, a security officer in a Downtown office building.
Amato, 56, who works for Harvard, said his supervisor ordered him to remove a button emblazoned with the logo for 32BJ, a property-services workers union. Amato is hoping he and his fellow security guards can soon become members of the union.
“I’d like to be able to support my family,” he said. “And what I make now, I can’t.”
The roughly 200 workers assembled on the J. Owen Grundy Pier even tough temperatures barely rose over 20 degrees, and kept warm by banging on makeshift drums made of buckets and passing around hand warmers.
Kevin Brown, New Jersey director for 32BJ, which represents about 9,000 workers statewide, said Harvard’s employees are merely hoping for “raises and respect.”
“The workers are organizing because they’re barely paid living wages,” Brown said.
A phone call placed to Harvard seeking comment was not returned.
32BJ shared a Dec. 18, 2012 memo Harvard workers received in Pennsylvania that discusses “union coercion” of its employees.
“No talks, no solicitation or dealings with any unions or union representatives are permitted” on private property or during working hours, the memo reads. “Any security officer found to do so will be terminated on the spot.”
Ward E City Councilman Steve Fulop, who last week received the endorsement of 32BJ in his bid to become Jersey City mayor, told the crowd that union membership helps workers move into the middle class.
Jersey City should not allow businesses like Harvard to “intimidate” workers, Fulop said.
source-nj.com