“I feel like shit.”

That was the response from a source within AlliedBarton, who wishes to remain anonymous for job security reasons, when I asked about his feelings on the annual bag check policy.

Though the bag checks started less than two weeks ago, enthusiasm amongst the guards has noticeably waned. Most of the time, they haphazardly glance at the backpacks as students walk by. Sometimes, they don’t bother to look at all.

Additionally, the AlliedBarton source expressed discontent over not getting paid more per hour during the weeks leading up to Spring Fling, even though he has to work overtime with less break time.

He said that this policy is different from last year, when he made roughly a dollar more per hour. Larry Rubin, spokesperson for AlliedBarton, was “not aware” of any change in policy in regard to more compensation for employees.

This isn’t the first time that AlliedBarton has come under scrutiny on Penn’s campus.

A campaign for unionization was started in 2005 when five security guards sent a petition to Amy Gutmann. Though the guards were not allowed to join the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), they formed a non-majority union called Philadelphia Officers and Workers Rising (POWR!).

POWR has won significant victories in the past few years, including more paid sick days, a new security headquarters (they once had to meet in a garbage storage room beneath Wawa), and a wage increase from $9.70 to $15.00 for roving security guards at Penn.

However, the discontent over bag checks (and the paranoia that most of the guards displayed when I mentioned that I was with the DP) proves that more work needs to be done. Penn is in a considerably sticky situation, as Ronald Perelman (Penn graduate, namesake of the Perelman Quadrangle, and the 94th richest person in the world) owns the majority of AlliedBarton.

Despite this apparent conflict of interest, if the University truly believes that the bag check policy is crucial to the safety of its students, then it should strongly support the full unionization of the AlliedBarton security guards, to ensure that they can do their job without worrying about job security or earning a living wage.

This is the second part of a two-part series criticizing the University’s bag check policy.

Tags: Ronald Perelman

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 at 5:00 am and is filed under Penn, Philadelphia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.