Lacklustre Pay for Hollywood Security Workers
01 February 2010
by Anai Rhoads
AnaiRhoads.org -- A report was released by a U.S. labour union Monday, which reveals that employees working for major Hollywood film studios are grossly underpaid, despite the corporations’ record revenues in 2009.
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) highlights the continued poverty wages of Hollywood's mostly African American and Latino security officers in their new report, Reel Profits, Real Poverty: How Major Hollywood Studios Are Leaving Security Officers Behind.
According to the report, there is a significant economic disparity between well-heeled Hollywood studios and the officers employed by the studios' security company, Andrews International. The company is said to be owned by a Boston-based private equity firm called Audax. Andrews International has more than 10,500 security personnel in the U.S. and Mexico, and currently the seventh-largest contract security firm in the United States.
The recession hasn't put a dent in the film industry; in fact it brought in a record $10.7 billion in revenue in 2009. All the while its security officers are paid as little as $10 an hour and struggle on a daily basis to meet their basic needs.
"These studios have millions coming in each and every day," says Rogelio Garcia, employed by security firm Andrews International at Fox Studios. "And each and every day we're out there protecting them for next to nothing."
Several security officers featured in the report testified to discrimination and said they were often forced to work 10 hours straight without breaks. The low pay is having a major impact on their ability to maintain their households. Many say it has come down to choosing between buying food or medicine.
An Andrews International officer also told SEIU the story of a mother and daughter who lost their apartment and were forced to resort to living on the Sony film studio lot to avoid being on the streets. The family was subsequently discovered on the lot and fired.
Other Hollywood workers receive reasonable pay, according to SEIU. However, security officers are not part of a union and do not share in film industry's prosperity.
Andrews International officers in Hollywood are now joining with Andrews International officers in six states in an effort to form a union with SEIU in order, to both raise company and industry standards.
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