Audio By Carbonatix
Last week, we brought you the story of South Beach security guards who are trying to unionize for better pay and benefits.
Three-fourths of the Security Alliance rent-a-cops riding around Lincoln Road signed a petition to join the SEIU, but only one was willing to talk to Riptide on the record.
Richard Ruiz, who rides a bike patrol around the Beach, told us the company had lied to him about a pay raise and intimidated his co-workers not to support the union. “People are scared,” he said.
Apparently for good reason. A few days after New Times published Ruiz’s interview, Security Alliance fired the two-year employee.
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“I was fired when they found out I was speaking out and wanted a union,” Ruiz says. “Employers shouldn’t stop decent people from trying to have a better life.”
SEIU has filed a federal complaint over Ruiz’s firing.
