Wackenhut guards - hired to protect historic Philadelphia post- 9/11 - describe less-than-deal working conditions and a struggle to unionise
Source: Guardian Unlimited, Thursday January 10, 2008
They stand sentry at America's most sacred freedom sites - Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was ratified in 1776, and the Liberty Bell, now housed in a new building nearby. But to hear some of the more than 40 contract security agents employed by the massive government contractor Wackenhut Services describe their working conditions, it instead evokes another image from that era, the miserable winter that George Washington and his ragtag army spent at Valley Forge some 20 miles west of here.
The private guards - hired after the federal government decided to bulk up security at the Philadelphia historic sites in the wake of the September 11 terror attacks - describe long, sometimes cold days in which they are issued little or no protection from the elements, in which a torn raincoat is patched with duct tape and workers are disciplined for leaning against a wall or post.
..... Last September, the workers guarding Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell voted overwhelmingly - by a 31-2 count, with 15 abstentions - to join SEIU Local 32BJ, but so far Wackenhut has been able to fall back on a set of arcane labour regulations to avoid recognising the union.