32BJ highlights members' 9/11 role, launches campaign to organize 50,000 security officers

Twenty-five years after 9/11, Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union is using the anniversary to renew its push to organize tens of thousands of New York City security officers, arguing that the workers who help keep the city’s buildings safe still too often lack basic workplace protections.

The union, which represents about 20,000 security officers in New York City, announced Sept. 9 that it is launching a campaign to organize an additional 50,000 more of the workers. The announcement came alongside a memorial event honoring 24 32BJ members who were killed from the attacks while working at the World Trade Center.

Manny Pastreich, president of 32 BJ SEIU, said the union’s efforts over the past quarter-century have improved conditions for its members, but argued that the industry remains plagued by low wages, limited benefits and high turnover.

“In the days, months, and years following 9/11 we came to understand the importance of security officers in keeping New Yorkers and our buildings’ safe,” Pastreich said.

Union members played key role

More than 1,200 32BJ security officers and cleaners worked at the World Trade Center before the attacks. 

Yvette Cumberbatch, a current 32BJ member and World Trade Center shop steward who worked as a security officer there before 9/11, said officers played an essential role during the attacks.

“Security officers like us screened visitors, responded to medical emergencies, and, as our co-workers did on September 11, 2001, acted as the buildings’ liaisons with the NYPD and FDNY,” Cumberbatch said.

Union members gathered outside the Seagram Building at 375 Park Ave., where they were joined by nonunion security officers, City Council Speaker Julie Menin, Department of Consumer and Worker Protection Commissioner Samuel Levine and others. 

The event highlighted organizing campaigns involving officers employed by security companies serving retailers, grocery stores, residential buildings and other workplaces. The union said it is targeting workers at locations including Duane Reade/Walgreens, Victoria’s Secret, Guitar Center, Urban Outfitters, Food Bazaar, Whole Foods, Stop & Shop, Anthropologie and Bath & Body Works, among others.

According to figures cited by the union, 37.8 percent of New York City security officers lack health insurance through their employer or a household member’s employer. The union also cited a median annual income of $40,311 and a 77 percent turnover rate in the city’s security-services sector in 2024.

The campaign also comes after 32 BJ helped secure passage of the Aland Etienne Safety and Security Act in January, which raises the minimum wage for New York City security officers to between $18.87 and $22.10 an hour in January 2027. The law was named after Aland Etienne, a 32BJ member who was fatally shot while protecting the lobby of 345 Park Ave in July, 2025.

'One job should be enough'

Some nonunion workers also detailed their experiences not having a collective voice to support their desire for fundamental workplace necessities.

Lawrence Gilliard, a Narrow Security officer who works at a Walgreens in the Bronx, said he works two jobs because his current position does not provide enough income and lacks quality health benefits.

“I’m fighting for the union because one job should be enough,” Gilliard said.

The union says its contracts provide members with employer-paid health insurance, paid vacation and holidays, retirement benefits, scheduling protections and access to legal services and free classes. Union members can also file grievances through the union and receive protections against being fired without cause.

The union is also emphasizing workplace technology as part of its organizing drive. It said nonunion officers can face the introduction of surveillance and artificial-intelligence technology without a collective bargaining process, while 32BJ members can bargain over how new technologies are implemented.

Pedro Francisco, who worked at the World Trade Center for seven years, said he left the site just an hour before the attacks because he was heading to a second job. 

“I worked at the Twin Towners for 7 years. But I still needed two jobs to get by. I got off work at 7AM on September 11 and headed uptown to my second job," he said. "I was one of the lucky few who wasn’t there when the planes hit"

Francisco is now part of 32BJ’s POWER Committee, a group of union leaders and nonunion security officers working on the organizing campaign. He said the anniversary has reinforced his commitment to organizing workers in the industry.

“For me that means fighting for security officers across this city,” Francisco said.