Security guards going on strike

[chimx]

Last week SEIU union security guards went on strike for 1 day to emphasize the importance of living wages and the necessity of health care. There has been a lot of (IMO misguided) talk on revleft accusing security guards of being "defenders of capital" and some how bourgeoisified workers. Some have said they would not support security guards, while others have simply said that because of their jobs, they are simply a difficult group to organize for class struggle.

Well here is an ongoing case of security guards fighting against large security companies for worker rights. Do you support them in their strike? Are you hostile to security workers?


Twin Cities security officers called a one-day strike for Monday, February 25, against the three largest security contractors in the area — Securitas, American, and ABM. According to officials of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the strike was called after these companies and others walked out of negotiations last Saturday night without addressing affordable health insurance for security officers and their families.

Multiple rallies of hundreds of striking workers and community allies were also held Monday in order to highlight the need for affordable health care for all Minnesotans and the lack of action by security contractors on this key issue, according to the union.

“No one ever wants to have to go on strike, but we have been given no other choice,” said Donna Alexander, a security officer for Securitas in Minneapolis and a member of the union bargaining committee, in an SEIU press release. “We have to stand up now for what’s right for us and right for our community — affordable health care for our families and for all Minnesotans.”

Javier Morillo-Alicea, president of SEIU Local 26, and several dozen security officers gathered at the Minneapolis City Hall rotunda last week with this central message to security contractors: “Let’s get the job done, or we will strike.” That “job” is a new contract that should include livable wages, affordable health care, and respect.

http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/article/2008/02/29/security-officers-strike-living-wage-and-respect.html#

[Die Neue Zeit]

I honestly do not know. They, like lawyers, cops, and judges, are defenders of capital, and they are a difficult group to organize for class struggle (strike breakers). :(

IF there is to be proletarian support, it is to be behind them proverbially (to stab them before they turn around to stab).

[chimx]

I have friends that have done security jobs before. They are often extremely underpaid, and often aware of the shittyness of aspects of their job. Ultimately though, they are selling their labor power to capitalists and should be considered as much a part of the working class as anyone else.

[Die Neue Zeit]

^^^ OK, let me be fair.

Where I live, there are casinos. They obviously have security guards, but these guards are UNARMED (and quite a number of them are friendly, from EXTENSIVE personal experience).

[YSR]

Twin Cities IWW was out on the picket line supporting the workers. I had class and work that day, so I couldn't get out there to help out. I'm not sure if they're gonna strike again, it's sorta unclear right now.

Security guards=/=cops. Whereas the police force is an institution which gets proletarians to work for the state to defend capital, security guards, as Chimx rightly points out, flow in and out of the working class with serious frequency. I don't think their job is one I'd like to see maintained in a post-capitalist situation, but they're still workers today.

[Die Neue Zeit]

^^^ What about strike-breakers and agents of union-busting companies? :glare:

[bcbm]

I support them.

Easier to steal for a day...

[Lenin II]

I suppose we should support them. I do so with reluctance, since though security guards are more working class than cops, they still defend the petite-bourgeoisie and their profits.

But if they are fighting against them for once, and they are the unarmed type, we should not consider them police as such.

[Coggeh]

We must fight for all workers rights , they may defend the petit bourgeois and their profits , but they do so uncounciously ,not everyone is up to date with marxism , they just want a bloody job . And in this case better wages , a share of the profits from the bourgeois . They should be supported .

[RedDawn]

Workers create the capital in the first place. You wouldn't call them reactionary would you?

I work with security guards everyday at work. They think their job is BS too. But they gotta make a living.

Security guards are also a primarily black occupation.

[Robocommie]

I was up until earlier this week, a security guard myself. I assure you, the grunts and peons in the security industry are no more friends of capital than any miner, factory worker or small farmer. They are paid minimum wage and often have to work two jobs to make ends meet if they have families. The work can be difficult and they often face physical injury from falls, slips, accidents and the like.

The fact is, security guards aren't only deployed to protect against theft. They also watch for fire, safety hazards including to other workers, they check to make sure industrial machinery is still operating safely when the other workers have gone home for the night. In other words, the best way to sum up what a security guard is, is somebody who watches things when everyone else is gone. It's a necessary job, one we would need under a Marxist system.

Also, remember that a vast majority of guards are unarmed.

Mind you, the higher ups are some of the worst examples of the bourgeoisie. But the workers have the same gripes as many other workers - that they get jerked around by the bosses, that they do all the work but the higher ups keep most of the money.

I know there's a big reputation of security guards as strike-breakers and that some private security personnel, like the Pinkertons, have done a lot of dirty shit to help out capital. The company I worked for is certainly no innocent. But remember - the ones doing those things are hand-picked favorites who get paid a lot better. The majority of guys on the ground are just working joes who're trying to feed their family.

Comrades, I urge you, feel compassion and solidarity for these workers, because for the most part that truly is what they are. Let's hope this strike succeeds and that the unions spread further through the security industry.

[Die Neue Zeit]

^^^ Robocommie, you should note that I wasn't being personal or anything. It's just that different "occupations" have different roles in capitalist society: one advances the productive forces, while another merely defends the system.

I realize that security guards can develop a proletarian consciousness despite their jobs. Then again, so did the journalist Marx, the petit-bourgeois capitalist Engels, and the lawyer Lenin.

I should point out my Theory thread on class relations, given what you said about security guards having two jobs. While I stated that there are at least six classes, the lines can be blurred.

[Robocommie]

^^^ Robocommie, you should note that I wasn't being personal or anything. It's just that different "occupations" have different roles in capitalist society: one advances the productive forces, while another merely defends the system.

I understand, I can actually see the wisdom of your point. I just think that security guards themselves aren't the defenders of the system to the same extent that the cops and the courts are. They're pawns of that system, yes, but then isn't a factory worker a pawn of the owners?



I realize that security guards can develop a proletarian consciousness despite their jobs. Then again, so did the journalist Marx, the petit-bourgeois capitalist Engels, and the lawyer Lenin.

There's hope for everyone, yes?



I should point out my Theory thread on class relations, given what you said about security guards having two jobs. While I stated that there are at least six classes, the lines can be blurred.

I agree with that heartily. If life could be divided easily into lines, it'd probably be easier.

[Die Neue Zeit]

I understand, I can actually see the wisdom of your point. I just think that security guards themselves aren't the defenders of the system to the same extent that the cops and the courts are. They're pawns of that system, yes, but then isn't a factory worker a pawn of the owners?

Oh yeah. To hell with the cops, lawyers (thank goodness Lenin had just one case and lost it :D ), and judges!


There's hope for everyone, yes?

Sorry for not mentioning this next part earlier. "A vast majority of guards are unarmed," you said. I can confirm the validity of this statement through personal experience of my own, too. :)


I agree with that heartily. If life could be divided easily into lines, it'd probably be easier.

I don't know when exactly did Marx say that capitalism simplified class relations (http://www.revleft.com/vb/can-workers-attain-t70267/index.html), but I wouldn't be surprised if he said so during the time of the Manifesto and back-tracked on that reductionist statement of his by the time of Das Kapital.

[cenv]

I support them. To say that security guards as a group aren't part of the proletariat is just ivory tower intellectualism. Is part of their job to protect private property and the bourgeoisie? Yes, but this is true of many workers in some way or another. Some might say that their job indirectly sets them at odds with the working class in the framework of Marxist theory. However, the fact is that the tendency of capitalism is to divide the working class, and turn the working class into the protectors of the bourgeoisie, simultaneously turning proletarians against themselves. In reality, most security guards really are just normal workers with shit wages and conditions.

So yeah, of course I support them.