the guy by the door …

Gathering in front of Holyoke Center after agreement between S.E.i.U. and Allied-Barton was announced March 2007.

Last Spring, thanks to wide community support:

S.E.I.U Local 615 got a contract agreement with the largest security company in the U.S. ¹ – Allied-Barton – the firm which is currently used by Harvard. One axiom of an individual seeking a job, is that your power in what is always an ‘asymmetric relationship’ is at it’s greatest just before you sign on the dotted line. This is also true of unions relative to employers. The job of the union over the duration of the contract is to oppose employers efforts chip away at – if not outright ignore – provisions of the contract.

S.E.I.U Local 615 members at Harvard are asking your support in bringing pressure to bear on Allied-Barton for violations of contract provisions:

• Failing to post job openings so that all eligible union members can bid on them.
• Awarding hours to new employees in unposted jobs.
• Ending all overtime.
• Posting new employees for ‘training’ without any supervision to train them.

These and other infractions are described by the union members themselves at Boston SOUL – Security Officers Union Local615.²

They are asking us to join a rally today in front of the Holyoke Center from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM.

I respect and support what they are doing and I will join in their parade. However, I do think that Harvard’s Labor Left has not yet found the best path. For the Harvard community to pressure adminstration to perssure Allied-Barton management is at best oblique. Consider what the purpose of outsourcing is in the first place. But, Lest that be called rain, I will render it after the parade.

¹I have deliberately excluded from this, Blackwater, Dyncorp and their ilk who I would call private military organizations.

²We need to get these folks more in tune with the other part of SEIU615 i.e. Harvard’s Custodial Workers. One thing at a time I guess.