Forty years after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his life organizing sanitation workers in Memphis, my colleagues and I are still fighting for justice in the workplace.
Today, security officers who protect Kaiser Permanente facilities in California are striking against our employer -- Inter-Con Security Systems -- which refuses to give us basic rights and has met every step we have taken to form a union with fierce opposition and jobsite harassment.
We've been struggling with Inter-Con for more than two years now. Instead of honoring the wishes of its employees, Inter-Con responded by unlawfully intimidating and coercing its officers.
At Kaiser, security officers are among the only group of workers who are being denied the right to form a union. Almost all other direct employees or subcontracted workers are protected under Kaiser's Labor Management Partnership. As a result, you can really see the stark differences in job quality, compensation, and overall staff morale.
I work the graveyard shift from 12:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. A nurse I work with was recently shocked to discover that I don't receive differential pay for my late-night hours. I told her, "How could we possibly expect differential pay when we don't even get a paid sick day or a basic annual wage increase?"
Inter-Con won't even provide security officers with a single paid sick day, which is just crazy in a hospital setting. We're forced to come to our hospital sites sick -- potentially infecting vulnerable patients -- because we don't have any other options. If we don't show up, it's not just that we'll get docked pay -- we also risk getting fired. I highly doubt that a measly five days of paid sick leave would break the Inter-Con bank; but I'm more than sure it would improve the services we provide and build loyalty among the staff.
Unfortunately, Inter-Con doesn't share my sense of pragmatism. In fact, when I went on maternity leave six months ago, they harassed me into returning two weeks before the six weeks of family leave I am legally entitled to was used up. I'd been working at the job for nearly three years, and there was no doubt that I was coming back. But Inter-Con just kept threatening to give away my position, and I was scared. A lost job was the last thing I needed to deal with while juggling the responsibilities of being a mother for the first time. Of course it wasn't surprising coming from a company who had told me months before that "they didn't have positions for pregnant women."
It still shocks me that as honest workers, we have to fight this hard to get a break and Inter-Con's only response is to violate our rights. I guess that's just the way the world is these days. Job security is something you can't take for granted when you work for a contractor like Inter-Con.
Back when I was out on maternity leave, Inter-Con fired one of my colleagues who had been active in trying to organize a union. Inter-Con said they fired him for his poor language skills-- although those skills worked just fine for the three years he had already put in there! He was lucky. Because we'd started working with SEIU, we saw the kind of justice unions can provide. After negotiation and some legal proceedings, my colleague was able to come back to work for Inter-Con in an even higher position than the one they'd fired him from for his "lacking language skills."
We need more of that kind of justice.
Even though my salary hasn't budged since I started working at Inter-Con, my life's changed a lot. I have a six-month old and my family needs me. I suppose I'm just like every other worker in America: I want a job that values my contributions and pays me a livable wage. In the wealthiest country on earth, I just don't think that's too much to ask.
Forty years ago, Dr. King died while standing up for the dignity and human rights of workers. Today my co-workers and I will share that struggle. We'll be outside with signs in hand, using the only tools we have to make our voices heard. I pray this time it will pay off. It's time for Inter-Con to give us a break. And if we can't convince them to treat us like human beings, it's time for Kaiser to give us the support we need so we can do our jobs well and be treated with the dignity we have already earned.
For more information on the Inter-Con security officers' struggle, go to www.StandForInterConWorkers.org
Rochelle Duran has worked as a security officer at Kaiser Permanente in Fremont, California, for nearly three years. At the same time she fights for justice for her fellow Inter-Con security officers, Rochelle is a full-time student studying to become a probation officer. Outside of work, Rochelle enjoys spending time with her six-month old baby. For more information on the Inter-Con security officers' struggle, you can go to www.standforinterconworkers.org.
Just Work is a series presented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to give a voice to working people to discuss their daily struggles to balance work, afford life and participate in a more just society. SEIU welcomes submissions to Just Work! Please send your story (800 words or less) to ali.jost@seiu.org.
About SEIU: The 1.9 million-member SEIU is the fastest-growing union in North America. SEIU members are winning better wages, health care, and more secure jobs for our communities, while uniting their strength with their counterparts around the world to help ensure that workers, not just corporations and CEOs, benefit from today's global economy.
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Posted April 4, 2008 | 12:12 PM (EST)