Civil Rights Leaders, Security Officers to Call on G.E. Real Estate/Arden Realty to Stop What They Say Are Racist Policies.

LOS ANGELES -- Stand for Security Coalition to Sponsor 'Uprising' Demonstrations to Be Held at G.E./Arden Headquarters on West Coast, G.E. Corporate Headquarters on East Coast on Monday, Sept. 18

The Stand for Security Coalition today announced that civil rights leaders, clergy and hundreds of students, community supporters and private security officers will join in a 'Security Officers Uprising' march and rally outside the Los Angeles headquarters of G.E. Real Estate/Arden Realty on Monday, Sept. 18, to demonstrate against what community leaders are calling the company's policies that discriminate against African-Americans. G.E. Real Estate/Arden Realty has taken a position that would in effect block thousands of predominantly African American private security officers in Los Angeles from forming a union in order to lift themselves out of poverty. A simultaneous action will take place at G.E.'s corporate headquarters on the East Coast.

"Security officers are on the verge of a historic step forward that will raise security standards and provide good jobs for this mostly African American workforce and their families, but G.E./Arden is threatening to unravel all that," said Rev. Eric P. Lee, CEO of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles.

Eight out of ten private security officers working in commercial buildings throughout Los Angeles County have indicated they want to professionalize their jobs, get more training, improve their wages and have access to affordable health care by forming a union with Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

In the late spring, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called on the city's real estate industry leaders to improve working conditions for the city's thousands of predominately African American, low-wage private security officers after achieving a compromise that moved Maguire Properties, downtown L.A.'s largest building owner, to support the rights of security officers to organize with the union of their choice. That breakthrough led to the formation of a special labor committee by the Building Owners and Managers Association to deal with the security officers organizing issues.

Now, Stand for Security Coalition members have learned that G.E. Real Estate/Arden Realty is pushing for a barrier that would exclude thousands of private security officers assigned to protect commercial real estate under 150,000 square feet from having the right to form a union.

"G.E./Arden's position would shut out thousands of security officers from the opportunity to form a union with SEIU -- that's discrimination and we will not stand for discrimination of any kind," said Lee.

Other building service workers in G.E Real Estate/Arden Realty buildings, like the predominantly Anglo operating engineers and mostly Latino janitors, have been allowed to join the union of their choice. Only security officers, the majority of whom are African American, have been denied that right. G.E. Real Estate/Arden Realty is refusing to meet with clergy and community leaders to discuss the private security officers' efforts to lift themselves and their communities out of poverty by forming a union.

"Thousands of security officers across L.A. are struggling to just get by," said security officer John Wilson. "Whether we protect the tallest buildings in the city or smaller office complexes, we still put our lives on the line and no officer should be left behind."

In preparation for the September 18 protest, supporters from the South L.A. community, labor activists, and students attended a special training lead by the Rev. James M. Lawson Jr., a former colleague of Martin Luther King Jr., for individuals who may choose to engage in non-violent civil disobedience to protest these discriminatory policies.

For more information go to www.standforsecuritycoalition.com