SAN FRANCISCO-With contract negotiations continuing for thousands of San Francisco Bay Area private security officers, elected leaders, labor leaders, clergy, students, and community supporters engaged in an act of non-violent civil disobedience today, during which 23 supporters were arrested when they occupied the intersection of Montgomery and Pine, located in the city's downtown financial district, for 45 minutes.

The direct action protest, following in the Civil Rights era tradition of non-violent protest against injustice, called on the Bay Area's multibillion dollar real estate to stop leaving workers "out in the cold"in the midst of what the San Francisco Chronicle has called a "booming"San Francisco economy.

"We're willing to risk arrest today because we believe no one in San Francisco should ever have to choose between paying the rent or taking their kids to the doctor,"said Walter Johnson of the San Francisco Central Labor Council. "In a first-class city like San Francisco, it is unacceptable that security officers have been working for almost a hundred days without a contract-this is not the kind of future we want for this community."

Draped in blankets to symbolize security officers being "left out in the cold,"and wearing enlarged photographs depicting security officers in talks to win wages that support a family and access to quality, affordable health care, the demonstrators included Walter Johnson, SF CLC; Fred Pecker, ILWU Local 6 Secretary-Treasurer; Michael Theriault, Building and Construction Trades Council; Connie Ford, OPEIU Local 3 Secretary-Treasurer; Allan Fisher, AFT Local 2121; Dean Atkinson, Bay Area Organizing Committee (BAOC); Chris Worthington; Berkeley City Council; John Avalos, SF Board of Supervisor Daly's office; clergy, community supporters, and security officers, among others.

"I've been where you all are today. I know the kind of courage it takes to stand up to injustice,"said the Rev. Dr. Lewis E. Logan II, Senior Pastor at Bethel AME Church in Los Angeles and a leader of the Stand for Security Coalition. "In the history of our country and the history of the movement for justice, it is actions like yours and acts of courage like these that change people's lives."

It has been nearly 100 days that thousands of security officers have been working under an expired contract. Security officers work full time protecting multibillion-dollar properties but can't afford to live in The City. Security officers earn on average $24,000 a year without access to affordable health care, while the janitors and other service workers in the high-rise office buildings earn wages you can raise a family on and get full family health care.

Protestors carried flowers and observed a moment of silence during today's demonstration for the two security officers who were gunned down during an armed robbery at a bank in Philadelphia this morning. Security officers working for Securitas who protect Wells Fargo and Washington Mutual banks throughout the Bay Area are unarmed and also unprotected and undertrained. They do not receive body armor or adequate training on how to respond to armed robberies even though private security officers are the first line of defense in robberies and other emergencies.

Today's direct action protest coincides with contract talks for more than 4,000 of the area's private security officers employed by Securitas, ABM, and Universal Protection Services and whom protect multibillion dollar properties owned by corporate giants such as Morgan Stanley. Last week, downtown security officers went on a three-day unfair labor practice strike to protest their employers' use of intimidation, harassment, and other unlawful practices. The strike-the first strike among private security officers in the history of the city-was in response to the companies' violation of security officers' rights during an ongoing labor dispute over industry standards.

Security officers have received widespread support for the efforts to win a union contract with improved wages, access to quality, affordable health care, and better training standards. Yesterday, a coalition of elected leaders, clergy and labor leaders including the Congressional Black Caucus; the California Legislative Black Caucus; San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris; Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums; Rev. Dr. Amos C. Brown, NAACP Third Baptist Church; Rev. Jesse Jackson / Rainbow Push, and others called on the city's real estate giants to end the double standards that keep security officers in poverty and ensure security officers have a good contract now.

Earlier this week, the Alameda Central Labor Council's 130 affiliated labor unions voted unanimously to join the San Francisco Central Labor Council's 150 labor unions in granting strike sanctions to SEIU Local 24/7 should security officers go on an open-ended strike next week in the East Bay and San Francisco.

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