Reply #18: A private army when you need it most

[seemslikeadream]

MERCENARIES FOR HIRE
All this firepower, trained on a public which places its trust in uniformed guards, raises a variety of concerns: The private security industry is largely unregulated; its employees are often poorly trained, underpaid, and inadequately screened; and they serve only those who hired them. While rent-a cops are legally limited to observing, reporting and attempting to deter crime a power which falls short of the authorized use of force or the right to make an arrest the distinction is apt to be lost on most citizens accosted by a uniformed private guard waving a gun and security badge.
The history of businesses hiring security firms and using them like a private army is long and rife with abuse. Pinkerton, the nation's oldest and second largest security company, earned its spurs in the late 19th century when its guards served as a private army for robber barons intent on wiping out unions. Pinkerton provided the firepower when Ford Frick issued the order to gun down striking workers at Andrew Carnegie's Homestead steel plant in 1892.

Private security companies today have kept that union-busting tradition alive and well. As corporations faced with labor disputes turn more and more to so-called permanent replacement workers, guard firms are utilized to crush militant opposition from unions. A rapidly expanding subset of the industry specializes in strikebreaking.

At the forefront is the Special Response Corporation (SRC), based in Towson, Maryland, SRC's ads feature a uniformed agent wielding a riot shield beneath a headline which proclaims: A Private Army When You Need It Most. SRC promises prospective employers that we can provide the security and control measures necessary for the continued operation of the business in the event of a strike. SRC vouches for the professionalism of its agents, stating that they all have prior military or law enforcement experience. In 1990, SRC helped precipitate a melee when its guards used martial arts sticks against striking newspaper workers in New York City.

http://mediafilter.org/caq/CAQ54p.police.html

Tales of the strike-busters
Unionized workers knock heads with controversial security firms that specialize in picket-line intimidation
BY BRUCE LIVESEY
For Edwin Godinez it was a case of déjà vu. Prior to emigrating from the Philippines six years ago he'd grown accustomed to seeing soldiers dressed in riot gear beating up protesters and strikers. But when Godinez and 450 fellow workers went on strike last October against their employer, Mississauga-based CFM Majestic Inc., it was as if he had never left home.

As soon as the strike began, the workers were confronted by burly security guards outside the factory where CFM Majestic manufactures fireplaces and stoves. The guards had shaved heads, were dressed from head to toe in black uniforms and wore black caps and military boots. As the workers tried to block buses filled with replacement workers -- or scabs, as they're traditionally known -- from crossing the picket lines, the guards shoved the picketers out of the way. Aiming video cameras, they also filmed the strikers. These guards worked for an outfit called London Protection International Inc. (LPI), a security company that specializes in "labour unrest management" situations.

If LPI's intention was to frighten the workers -- the majority of whom are from the Philippines -- it didn't work. "Most of the Filipino workers had been college students back home and were used to this sort of police presence," says Godinez, a 35-year-old father of a baby daughter. "We were not really intimidated."

Even before negotiations with the United Steelworkers of America union broke down last fall, the company hired both LPI and Bill McFadden Ltd., an outfit owned by a former U.S. Navy SEAL who leases trucks and buses for transporting scabs (later prompting workers to brandish signs reading "Dump the Seal"). On CFM Majestic's behalf, LPI recruited scabs, herding them onto buses at a Mississauga baseball field while their guards cleared a path through picketers into the company's plant. "The people were constantly pushing and shoving picketers," says Garnet Penny, a Steelworkers area coordinator. The union responded by launching an effective corporate campaign that, after four weeks, compelled CFM Majestic to grudgingly offer a better first contract.

http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_04.13.00/news/busters.html