Museum Guards Get Support For Organizing

From today's Inquirer by Stephen Salisbury

Security guards seeking to form a union at the Philadelphia Museum of Art have received some outside support from area political figures just days before a vote on the union is scheduled.




The 130 guards are employees of AlliedBarton, a Conshohocken security firm. In addition to providing about 80 percent of the museum's guards, AlliedBarton supplies many large local institutions with much of their manned security.

The Art Museum guards are scheduled to vote tomorrow and Saturday on whether to recognize the Philadelphia Security Officers Union, an independent group, as their collective bargaining unit.

In letters delivered this week, Democratic U.S. Rep. Bob Brady wrote each guard to "express my support as a fellow Philadelphian [and] as a lifelong union member."

Brady reminded workers that they have a right to form a union under the National Labor Relations Act.

"Hundreds of Philadelphians have been writing letters and making phone calls to the museum asking them to hear you," Brady continued. "I know that the museum has forwarded all these letters to AlliedBarton. So, your neighbors' voices are being heard."

...More here: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/pa/20091008_Art_Museum_guards_get_support_for_unionizing.html