Financial Insecurity
Museum guards ask new director to hear them out.
Security guard Jennifer Collazo seeks to unionize workers at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
On April 19, Jennifer Collazo woke up with a $2,882.47 hospital bill. The 33-year-old Army veteran is a Philadelphia Museum of Art security guard employed by the private contractor AlliedBarton. Collazo pays into the medical insurance offered by her employer, but when she came down with severe neck and back pain on the job, she discovered that her health benefits didn’t even cover things like the ambulance ride.
Paltry medical coverage combined with low wages has driven Collazo and other museum guards to organize the Philadelphia Security Officers Union (PSOU). While the museum and AlliedBarton have rebuffed them in the past, guards hope that the institution’s incoming director, Timothy Rub, will be open to dialogue when he takes charge early next month. He succeeds long-time director Anne d’Harnoncourt, who died last year.
The guards say they want Rub to prod AlliedBarton to give them a pay raise and recognize their union.
Museum guards earn approximately $19,257.60 a year before taxes, which breaks down to $10.03 per hour. At that wage, many say they cannot afford to pay for AlliedBarton’s health care plan. One long-time guard says she’s forced to rely on the city’s public health clinics. Another guard says her children are covered through the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
The security team wants wages increased to $13.48 per hour, an amount that is equal to the occupation’s federally determined prevailing wage.
“We are not getting paid for the work we’re doing,” says Collazo. “All we’re asking for is a small piece of the pie. We just want to talk to Rub and the current [interim] director and have a dialogue.”
Museum staff declined to reveal Rub’s salary, but his predecessor made a base salary of $326,397 according to the Inquirer. The Museum declined a request to interview Rub for this article.
On August 6, labor rights group Jobs with Justice filed a complaint with the City of Philadelphia’s Labor and Standards Division, alleging that AlliedBarton’s wages are not only low, but illegal. Jobs with Justice helped organize the Philadelphia Officers and Workers Rising (POWR) campaign.
The complaint charges that the museum is violating the city’s prevailing wage law, which sets standard pay for jobs receiving city funds. The Art Museum received $2.4 million from the city in 2009 and is supposed to receive $2.3 million in 2010. A representative of the Mayor’s office declined to comment on the complaint, since it’s currently being reviewed by the Law Department.
“It’s a choice between paying your bills and eating,” says Collazo. “It’s a shame for anyone to have to make that choice. And I feel even worse for people who have kids.”
Collazo has been working for AlliedBarton since 2004, about two years after she returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan. She hoped that the experience she picked up working in a warehouse and managing inventory during her seven-year stint in the Army would land her a decent job once she returned home. But in today’s ever weakening job market, a low-wage service job is the best she could find.
According to Collazo and other guards, shifts can be long and tedious, with workers getting just one paid 15-minute break and an unpaid 30-minute lunch. And according to some guards interviewed for this story, they were denied a promised 25 cent raise in July.
Cecilia Lynch, 52, contends that the raise wasn’t promised, but expected, as guards had received cost of living raises of at least 28 cents in years past. Lynch, who has worked as a museum guard for nine years says, “$13.48 is not a lot to ask. Then maybe I could afford their health care.”
AlliedBarton spokesman Larry Rubin denied that workers were ever promised a raise. “She hates her job, doesn’t she?” he says, referring to Collazo. “In my opinion, she seems to have been mistaken with regards to the facts.”
The Art Museum referred questions regarding security guards to AlliedBarton, saying only, “It is our understanding that their compensation package is competitive.”
The guards have been in a labor no-mans-land of sorts since 2006, when the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) stopped organizing Philly officers as part of a broader (and controversial) deal with AlliedBarton.
The firm’s guards had been organizing at sites around Philadelphia since 2005, including at universities like Drexel, Penn and Temple. The deal, by which the company pledged to stay neutral during union organizing drives if SEIU dropped the Philly campaign, angered many labor advocates.
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Letters to the Editor
1. Philly JwJ said... on Aug 26, 2009 at 10:24AM
“Jobs with Justice and PSOU have made a short documentary about the guards and their campaign. The film will be screened this evening at 6:30 PM at 4205 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia (HQ of the Media Mobilizing Project).
The public is welcome to attend. For more information contact Fabricio at 215-732-8318.”
2. Anonymous said... on Aug 28, 2009 at 11:08AM
“How much do the guards at the sports arenas get paid? We all know the city gives them millions of dollars, and the directors are paid obscene amounts also. And I wonder, did she take this job because she wanted to be around great art, or because she likes to be a guard? Museum guarding is ultimately a loser job, and anyone can do it. If you want more money, I suggest you put down the crack pipe, and go get an education. Heres some good mischief- get a busload of patrons from the Penalty Box to go to the next cocktail party at the museum- then watch what happens when some main line lawyer accidentally bumps one of them and spills their drink. Then we can find out what these guards are made of.”
3. S Reed said... on Aug 28, 2009 at 06:33PM
“
RE: Anonymous Aug 28, 2009 at 11:08A.M.
I'd pay to see you go to the next cocktail party and try to pull that scenario off. Anyone could doubt you have the testicular fortitude to do it because you are probably one of the leaches reaping the benefit from these employees being underpaid. No one is interested in your sarcasm, especially when some of these employees as veterans have shed blood for the country and protecting ungrateful individuals like yourself from the loss of your rights to be an American. Just anyone can't do this job, if so we'd be looking for you to apply at the museum. You'll see just how complicated the job is when you have to safe guard human life and high dollar possessions while trying to deter random idiots like you that just want to screw things up for sport because you believe they are losers. I know a small portion of population may buy into the negativity you are bringing toward the situation but my advice is don't be a part of the problem, help develop a solution. If you feel it's not your problem, keep your nose out of the situation and keep your mouth shut.
”
4. Anonymous said... on Aug 28, 2009 at 10:54PM
“My bad, I certainly didn't know there were veterans who had spilled blood guarding the art, not just in the pictures with their guts hanging out. I think you misunderstood the scenario, but, exactly how much are you going to pay me? Do I need to be in a Union with the other drink-bumpers or can we just be scab bumpers? However, having to ride in a bus with anyone from Fishtown is a dealbreaker. But a few questions: how much more than than 2.3 million is required to cover the raise? Maybe we could just have John Street be the new Museum director, for half the price. And how about every other person working in the city for ten dollars or less- aren't they 'entitled' to more money from oh god, i dunno- Someone? maybe Donald Trump should be made to give some of HIS money-( I think I'm really onto something here)
But really- why does some one take a job for $10 /hour, and then rather than improve themselves and find a better job, find a rationale that relates to the salary of the museum d”
5. S Reed said... on Aug 30, 2009 at 01:01PM
“Re: Anonymous Aug 28, 2009 10:54 PM
I will repeat as I said before, no one is interested in your sarcasm and if you not going to be part of the solution, you are part of the problem. People like you just like to see others struggle.”
6. Anonymous said... on Aug 31, 2009 at 12:43AM
“And I ask again- what do guards in Philadelphia get paid? What does an armored guard get paid? a guard at the wachovia center? A bank guard? Private security? They don't hire veterans? And when the reporter says that the guards are going to make mischief, what is this mischief going to be? Slashing the art? do tell. Tell me this- Didn't the guards used to be city employees? Whats the story there? Just shitty reporting and meathead commentary. Apparently no one really does care. And still- what about every other person working in the city making $10 /hr or less without health care- I am so sick of your whining- oh - now its all political - but only when its your money -a debt we're talking about-she got the care- too bad for the 100,000 dead in GWB's made up war. Should have got some sergeant's stripes, huh?”
7. Anonymous said... on Jan 30, 2010 at 09:33PM
“ALLIED/BARTON I-S THE PROBLEM! THEIR TRANSPARENT RULES, THEIR OUT-SOURCED LACK OF TRAINING, POOR WAGES, TOTAL DISRESPECT FOR GUARDS---AND STRIKING UP 11TH HOUR DEALS WITH FLIMSY SEIU WHIMPS WHO FOLD TO BADGERING AND/OR BRIBES! REMEMBER THESE SEIU WHIMPS---THAT IS NOT A REPRESENTATIVE UNION THAT BACKS DOWN FROM THESE AGENCY SLIME-DOGS! GET A REAL REPRESENTATIVE, CARING UNION! IF YOU DO NOT, THEN YOU WILL NEVER HAVE LEVERAGE AGAINST THESE GUARD AGENCIES WHO RIDE "ROUGH-SHOD" OVER DUTY OFFICERS! ALLIED/BARTON NEEDS TO FAIL AND GO OUT OF BUSINESS-SOONER-THE-BETTER!”