Inter-Con Security guards to strike at Kaiser hospitals

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2008/04/21/daily68.html

Friday, April 25, 2008 - 4:42 PM PDT

Sacramento Business Journal - by Marie-Anne Hogarth East Bay Business Times

SEIU United Service Workers West announced April 25 that it has filed a 10-day strike notice against Pasadena-based Inter-Con Security Systems on behalf of security guards that the company provides to Kaiser Permanente hospitals throughout California.

The guards will hold a three-day strike at Kaiser facilities in Northern California on May 6, 7 and 8 and a one-day strike at Kaiser facilities in Southern California on May 8, according to the union.

Inrwe-Con has about 750 guards working at Kaiser facilities in Northern California and 500 in Southern California. Oakland-based SEIU United Services Workers West Local 24/7 is trying to organize the workers in Northern California.

The union previously staged a one-day strike in April.

At issue are the union's efforts to organize the workers, which it says Inter-Con is resisting. A spokeswoman for SEIU said the union has filed charges related to harassment and intimidation of guards by Inter-Con with the National Labor Relations Board.

Also according to SEIU, Inter-Con owes security officers $4 million in recovered wages for requiring employees to work off the clock. The money was part of a settlement issued in September 2007 for a class-action lawsuit against Inter-Con.

SEIU Local 24/7 is not a member of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions or the Labor Management Partnership, and the guards are not Kaiser employees, a spokeswoman for Kaiser, Gerri Ginsburg, said previously.

Catherine Ross, a spokeswoman for Inter-Con, said Friday she could not comment, because she had not seen the strike notice.