CWA 1180 - HRA Watch

HRA Watch

Real security guards coming back to Job Centers
June 2002

There are some happy signs that Rudy Giuliani is no longer Mayor. One of them, as reported in the June 14 Chief, is that the Special Officers, who served as the Job Centers' security personnel until it was privatized, are on their way back.

Giuliani's ideologically driven commitment to privatization led him in 1995 to replace the Special Officers—unionized civil servants with peace officer status and the power to make arrests—with low-wage private security guards. The results were disastrous. The "toy cops" (as 1180 members often refer to them) were discouraged by their employers from intervening in tense situations for fear of lawsuits, leaving HRA's workers as good as completely alone as far as their physical security was concerned. In the last year, as the recession deepened and the time limits of welfare reform started to take their toll, frustrated and angry clients and severe understaffing became a volatile mix, and in the absence of real security personnel, led to multiple violent incidents in which workers were injured

HRA's new commissioner, Verna Eggleston, has ordered a review of the security situation, and has announced that changes will be made based on the report she receives, expected July 9. In the meantime, however, the agency has moved immediately to deploy Special Officers alongside the "toy cops" in the five centers with the highest assault rate. While tentative, the move is widely perceived as a precursor to bringing the Special Officers back permanently. That would be a significant victory for Local 1180 members and other HRA workers, who have continually called for their reinstatement.

Back to HRA Watch Page