Security Officers Stand Up for Health Care at IDS Center
In an historic act of non-violent civil disobedience, nine Twin Cities security
officers were among those arrested earlier today while calling attention to the
need for the city’s private security force to have access to quality affordable
health care. The protest marks the first time in the nation’s history that
private security officers, who were acting to promote public safety by ensuring
good jobs with health care for the more than 800 security officers who protect
the Twin Cities’ largest downtown buildings, have taken the extraordinary
measure of principled non-compliance with the law.
“This is about
protecting working families and protecting people who live, work, and play in
our city’s downtown,” says Harrison Bullard, a security officer at the Hennepin
County Government Center. “People who come downtown want strong, healthy, and
well-trained security officers to provide protection for
them.”
The non-violent
protest in the lobby of the IDS Center, Minneapolis’ tallest building, followed
a community forum at nearby Gethsemane Church to which security officers invited
the CEOs of Minneapolis-based US Bancorp and Ameriprise to explain to parents
and community leaders their refusal to support health care for downtown security
officers and their families.