“Security is an area where it is very difficult for unions to operate”, says Unite National Director Mike Treen. “The problem is not that staff don’t want to join a union but that it is very difficult to get effective access to seeing employees and talking to them when they are so scattered across the city.”
Despite the is Unite is making steady progress. We are shortly to begin negotiations with First Security for a national agreement covering Unite members who are static guards and patrol staff employed by the company.
Later in the year we will begin negotiations for a national agreement for Unite members employed by ADT-Armourguard. We already have collective agreements with ADT covering the call centre, cash handling and despatch staff. However we will be arguing to combine these agreements into single national agreement which will also cover Unite members who are security guards employed by ADT.
We are also working towards negotiations with Icon Security for a collective employment agreement.
“Unite is looking at a variety of ways to improve our approach for security employees so we can both see more staff and give better service to members,” says Mike Treen. “It’s a difficult area but we are beginning to make real headway.”