More than 35,000 security officers have united with SEIU in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York, the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, and Washington, DC.

Working together with security companies, building owners, elected officials and community leaders, we have won significant industry improvements--including in officer wages and benefits--and done so without putting any single security company at a competitive disadvantage.

Our market-wide approach to uniting workers recognizes the competitive nature of the industry and allows market-leading companies to raise standards simultaneously, ending the counterproductive "race to the bottom" in wages and benefits and instead allowing companies to compete on the basis of innovation, safety record, and overall quality of service.

By implementing market-wide standards for building security, we are helping to create good jobs for our communities and working to lower turnover, improve training, and make the public safer.

Here are some examples:

• Officers in Washington D.C. won 32% higher wages. The minimum hourly wage for union officers is now $13.25, and all officers have employer provided health and retirement benefits.
• Los Angeles officers won an average of 25% wage increases over 5 years.
• Seattle security officers are now guaranteed wage increases each year for 5 years.
• Minneapolis security officers won individual health coverage for $20 per month by the end of their contract, and more affordable family coverage for $270 per month.
• Officers across Los Angeles now have 80-100% employer-paid health insurance guaranteed by the end of their contract and they have access to affordable family coverage.

Officers have also won the training and equipment they need in order to do their job more effectively and keep the public safe. In New York City, SEIU operates a training program for security officers as part of its training and education fund. In their last collective bargaining agreement, Minneapolis security officers won increased training and updated equipment.

Security officers united in SEIU have successfully led the push for higher security standards in several jurisdictions, including Washington, DC, New York, Illinois and California.

• In California, SEIU-sponsored legislation tightened background check processes and created a consumer complaint process for tenants and others concerned about the quality of security in buildings where they live and work.
• In Washington, an SEIU-supported measure to raise pay and training standards as is now law.
• In Illinois, SEIU-sponsored increases in officer training requirements have been enacted into law.

In our global industry we have learned that we must combine our strength with security officers in other countries in order to win improvements for all. Working with global partners such as the Swedish Transport Workers Union and Switzerland-based Union Network International (UNI), we have been able to raise standards and safeguard security officers' rights to form unions throughout the world, including in the United States.

In a 2006 agreement between Securitas, the Swedish Transport Union, and UNI, Securitas pledges to "respect the rights of all employees to form and join trade unions of their choice and to bargain collectively in accordance with local laws and principles."

As security officers, we believe that our efforts to improve our industry are making a difference--making both workers and the public more secure.