You’ve probably heard about yesterday’s tragedy at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, where security guard Steven Tyrone Johns was killed in the line of duty as he defended visitors from an attack by armed white supremacist fanatic James von Brunn.
Buried in the Washington Post’s coverage of the story, however, is a shocking detail. Johns was a member of the Security, Police, and Fire Professionals of America union (SPFPA), and his union, concerned by increasing anti-Semitic threats, pressed two years ago during contract negotiations with the company that Johns worked for — Wackenhut Services, Inc. — for the company to issue protective vests to the guards they posted at the Holocaust Museum.
“It’s a heavy loss,” said Assane Faye, the Washington district director of the Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America.
Like other guards at the museum, on Raoul Wallenberg Place SW near the Mall, Johns underwent training for which he received the D.C. police designation of “special police officer,” which permitted him to carry a revolver on duty.
Faye said that during contract negotiations with Wackenhut two years ago, the union pressed for company-issued protective vests. Although Wackenhut seemed open to the idea, vests have not been issued, Faye said.
“I hammered this in our negotiations two years ago because of how sensitive that museum is,” he said. “Our guards needed more protection.” He said that one of the guards at the museum was “verbally assaulted by one guy walking by, saying anti-Semitic remarks. For that reason, I made that the center of the negotiation.”
Authorities said Johns was not wearing a protective vest.
Had Wackenhut listened to its workers, Johns might not be dead today. But they didn’t, and he is.
Which provides a grim illustration of why America needs labor law reform. Workers deserve a voice in the decisions that affect their lives — decisions like whether or not their company should spend money to provide them with a workplace that’s as safe as it can be. Without their voice, it’s easy — too easy — for corporate bean-counters to cut corners on safety just to shave a few pennies off the quarterly expense report.
Johns’ case shows just how dramatically the system today is tilted towards corporate interests and against workers — even when workers come to the table with requests that are literally matters of life and death, corporations feel free to ignore them.
That has to end. Nobody knows the risks of a job better than the man or woman who works it every day. We need labor laws that give their voices the weight they deserve, rather than one that shuts those voices out.
(A tip of the CtW Connect hat goes out to ThinkProgress for their coverage of this.)
UPDATE (4:45PM): Marcy Wheeler observes:
This is our third reminder this year that unions do more than fight for middle class wages. They fight for the training that prepares men and women to do their jobs well. They help to ensure the safety of these men and women—and through their work, the safety of all of us.
We got another reminder yesterday of the real dangers presented by home grown right wing terrorism. But we also got another reminder that a lot of the heroes of these stories are union members, working to keep us all safe.