At 3:00 a.m. on Wednesday, April 9th, the bargaining team representing over 800 security officers with Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in the Twin Cities reached a tentative agreement with their employers that establishes a new five-year contract. The agreement represents a huge step towards achieving the priorities of security officers around the Twin Cities.

The agreement came two days before officers were slated to start an open-ended strike, and on the heels of an intensive campaign among officers, religious leaders, people of faith, and other community leaders. (See “Building Justice for Building Workers in Minnesota” on p. 9 in the Winter Faith Works, the newsletter of our national affiliate Interfaith Worker Justice.)

In the weeks leading up to the agreement, 10 leaders from WIN offered themselves up for arrest in two civil disobedience actions that also included a significant number of clergy and people of faith who belong to WIN. In the second action, clergy jointed security officers, who were the first in the nation to put themselves forward for arrest, in an effort to protect and defend the community’s health care standards.

The contract delivers real improvements in the lives of security officers. Specifically, officers won:

• Better pay: Wages for officers will increase by 50 cents an hour every year for the next five years. Officers currently earning the minimum wage in the industry ($10 an hour) will earn $13.20 an hour by the end of the contract.
• A minimum wage that’s a living wage: The industry’s minimum wage was $10 an hour. That will increase to $12.50 an hour under the new contract.
• Affordable health care coverage: Individuals who previously paid up to $150 a month for health insurance will pay $60 a month for health care in 2008 and $20 a month by the end of the contract. Also, officers will pay $260 a month for family health insurance beginning this year. Previously, officers paid $800 a month in premiums with the employer covering only 20 percent of the cost. Under this agreement, the employer will cover 65 percent of those costs.
• Training and equipment that will keep officers safe: Officers are already being fitted for bullet proof vests!

“The religious community played a key role in this campaign to improve officers’ lives and to defend community standards,” said Matt Gladue, executive director of the Workers Interfaith Network. “In the end, so many clergy and people of faith got involved and showed real leadership because they saw the officers’ struggle as their struggle, too.”