Kaiser security officers go on strike

Security officers and supporters picketed outside Kaiser Permanente’s Santa Rosa Medical Center on Tuesday as part of a three-day statewide strike.

More than 400 security officers across the state participated in the walkout, including about 25 security officers and a dozen supporters who picketed in Santa Rosa, organizers said.

Protestors contend their employer, Inter-Con Security Systems, is preventing officers from joining the Service Employees International Union. The Pasadena-based subcontractor provides 1,500 security officers for Kaiser facilities.

“We just haven’t gotten anywhere, that’s why we’re out here,” said security officer Scott Mooney, 40, of Santa Rosa, speaking by cell phone from the picket line. “No one is budging or being reasonable.”

Inter-Con officials did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment.

The company filed a complaint May 1 with the National Labor Relations Board seeking to block security officers and the SEIU from holding a strike, according to the labor board’s Web site.

Mooney said local Inter-Con supervisors have been “fighting us all the way,” alleging intimidation, spying and threats including the cutting back of work hours and placing “black marks” on workers’ records.

Similar charges have been filed with the labor board.

Inter-Con security officers have been trying to join the service union for several years, said Jennifer Kelly, a SEIU spokeswoman. The security officers are the only workers at Kaiser — either direct employees or subcontractors — who do not have a union, Kelly said.

Security officers began gathering in Santa Rosa Tuesday around 6 a.m.

Santa Rosa resident Anthony Price, 47, has been working as a security officer at the Santa Rosa Kaiser for nine years. It is his first time striking.

Price said he wants to join a union because he wants to be able to ask for personal leave. His 25-year-old niece is dying of liver cancer and he currently cannot take time off to spend with her, he said.

“It’s very important for me — it’s just a matter of respect mostly,” he said, speaking by cell phone from the picket line.

On average, security officers working at Kaiser for Inter-Con earn $10.50 on average an hour, Kelly said. Many officers cannot afford the family health care coverage and do not have paid sick days, she said.

By comparison, facility janitors have free family health care, earn a minimum of $11.50 an hour, on average, and accrue paid sick leave, she said.

The three-day strike is targeting 15 Kaiser medical facilities in northern and central California, including Oakland and Sacramento.

On Thursday, Kaiser security officers in Southern California will stage a one-day strike. Protests are scheduled at nine Kaiser medical facilities in Los Angeles, San Fernando and Anaheim.