Arts and Shaft

The folks who guard Philly's most valuable art are fighting for better working conditions.

by Boyce Upholt

DON'T STEAL THAT STATUE!

Harvey Finkle sick of no sick pay: Shontain Ayers, an Art Museum security guard. (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Donald Lindsey can't afford to get sick. His pay as a security guard at the Philadelphia Museum of Art — a little over $10 an hour — is hardly enough for him to provide for his four kids. And he gets no sick leave.

"I've been fortunate not to be real sick sick," he says. "Can't nobody afford to be out of work for a week or two."

But a campaign is being launched to change that. Philadelphia Officers and Workers Rising (POWR), a labor campaign that successfully pressured the University of Pennsylvania and Temple to provide sick days to their security guards, is now training its sights on the museum.

Sick leave, says Fabricio Rodriguez, is a first step in improving guards' precarious financial situation. Rodriguez is executive director of Jobs with Justice, an organization that connects laborers to student and church groups and unions, and helps organize POWR.

He first reached out to the museum about sick leave a year ago, he says. "And their response was, 'It's not our problem.'"

That's because the museum (like Penn and Temple) does not itself hire security guards, but instead subcontracts them through various private companies — the largest of which, AlliedBarton, has donated thousands to the institution. Until its sale was announced in July, AlliedBarton was owned by Ronald O. Perelman, whose parents are namesakes of a new museum building. (Penn and Temple guards are also employed by AlliedBarton.)

The museum did not reply to multiple requests for an interview by press time.

"To say 'It's not our problem' is completely ignorant," says Thomas Robinson, an overnight security guard at Penn and the chair of POWR's workers' committee. "These institutions can't just turn a blind eye."

When POWR initially brought complaints to Penn and Temple, it received an equally lackluster response. But after gathering guards, students and community members to demand improvements, it won a new leave policy which allowed guards to earn up to three sick days a year (five in the case of Penn, where guards also received a 50 percent wage increase — up to $15 an hour — and a new guards' facility).

Rodriguez believes the museum is similarly fertile ground. "This is one of the premier institutions of Philadelphia. To not even provide for the basic things people need to survive is really turning their back on what our city has stated very clearly we hold in high regard." He points to a living wage ordinance recently updated by City Council as evidence of local concern for labor issues.

By the end of Labor Day weekend, POWR expects to have 2,000 signatures on a petition calling for reform. Then, on Sept. 7, supporters will visit the museum wearing stickers that identify their sympathies. At 4 p.m., leaders from area churches and Jobs with Justice will hold a rally. At 5 p.m., laborers' hands will be blessed and anointed with oils as part of a "Blessing of the Hands" ceremony.

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It is this sort of public pressure, rather than unionization drives, that POWR finds effective. Full unionization requires a formal process and a majority vote. "That's a very high bar," says Rodriguez — nearly nine of 10 workplaces that begin the process finish without a union contract. Things are further complicated by the high turnover rate in the security industry. "It's not something we think we can organize at this point," Rodriguez says, though he has not ruled the option out.

Currently, the POWR workers' committee claims 47 of the museum's 130-odd guards as signed members. That makes it a "non-majority" union, meaning it doesn't have the power to collectively bargain, but can still organize protests about, say, sick leave.

Though security is not a skilled trade, says Lindsey, "It's not an easy job standing up for eight hours a day, five times a week, every week."

"I think they don't really care about us," he goes on. He's not sure how hopeful to be.

"I just want to see this thing come through so everybody can be happy. If they give us just those basic rights and stuff like that, I won't even have that much of a problem."

(editorial@citypaper.net)