Private security firm Wackenhut Corp. fresh from a legal victory over what it alleges is a campaign against it by a powerful union with influence at City Hall opened a second front in its battle last week.

Wackenhut, which is trying to hold onto a contract with the Department of Water and Power, appeared before the DWP’s board and defended itself against union charges that it violates labor laws.

It is unusual for a company to fight a city that has awarded it a contract. But Wackenhut already won a legal victory July 2 when a judge ruled Los Angeles wrongly killed another contract after complaints from the union.

The union, the Service Employees International Union, has pursued a lengthy national campaign against the security firm, which is opposing an SEIU effort to organize its guards.

Wackenhut general counsel Michael Hogsten said the SEIU’s most recent effort to stop the DWP from contracting with the company is an example of the influence unions have in city government.

“The mayor has taken the position that he wants to do business with the SEIU and not other providers,” Hogsten said. “And the purpose of the SEIU (effort) is to try to get the city to stop doing business with us.”

However, the union said it is merely trying to get Wackenhut to be a good employer. It claims Wackenhut discriminates racially and violates labor laws.

“We have an interest in doing right by the community,” said Faith Culbreath, president of SEIU’s Security Officers United in Los Angeles. “Wackenhut is notorious for mistreating their employees, and we have no problem saying, ‘you can’t do that.’ ”

The mayor and his representatives did not return a telephone inquiry.

However, it’s no secret that unions heavily support City Council members and the mayor, and at least some local lawyers who represent businesses that work with the government agreed with Wackenhut’s allegations.

“I think it has changed dramatically with Villaraigosa, who used to be a union organizer and who is close with unions,” said Steven Atkinson, a labor and employment lawyer at Cerritos-based Atkinson Andelson Loya Ruud & Romo LLP. “He has gone out of his way to try and get the city to favor union companies and contractors.”

Contract history

Wackenhut, which employs 35,000 private security guards nationwide, has a relationship with the city that went awry last year.

The security firm started contracting with the city in 2004, when the Department of General Services awarded Wackenhut a $14.2 million contract to supply security guards. Following that, the DWP awarded the company a separate security services contract in 2006.

And in 2007, when Wackenhut’s contract with general services ended, the company went through a competitive bidding process for a new contract.

It was during the process that Wackenhut claims the city required it to provide supplemental information regarding the company’s involvement in employment-related litigation throughout the country.

“The other successful bidders didn’t have to provide the extent of detail that we did,” Hogsten said. “We were treated differently than the other bidders because the SEIU was trying to keep us from getting the contract.”

Hogsten said a letter by Stand for Security Coalition, a group of community and clergy members, was sent to Mayor Villaraigosa during the March 2007 bidding process. It alleged that Wackenhut employees engaged in racial discrimination, and the city should deem Wackenhut a non-responsible contractor.

In its suit against the city, Wackenhut denied the allegations and claimed the letter was ghostwritten by the SEIU.

A Stand for Security representative did not return calls seeking comment.

Despite the allegations, Hogsten said his company received favorable reviews from the department of general services for its work. “Pressure from the SEIU and the mayor caused them to look for a way to get rid of us,” he said.

The contracts were awarded to several different bidders, including Wackenhut’s largest rival, Securitas Security Services USA Inc., which allowed the union to organize security guards in Los Angeles.

Wackenhut petitioned a state court judge to throw out the new private security contracts worth $6.7 million. On July 2, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David P. Yaffe ruled that the awarded contracts were illegal because the city did not follow the competitive bidding procedures outlined by the city charter.

David Michaelson, chief assistant city attorney, said the judge’s decision was based on a procedural matter. The ruling does not mention Wackenhut’s main allegation that the city abused its discretion by treating the company different than the other awardees, and was influenced by the SEIU during the bidding process.

“The July 2 written order from the judge makes no mention of that whatsoever,” Michaelson said.

General services needs to rebid a contract for the guards, but there is no implication that Wackenhut could win.

Meanwhile, Wackenhut is set to go before the DWP Aug. 5, when the department’s board is expected to address whether Wackenhut’s contract with it should be ended.

The SEIU sent a memo to the DWP saying the security firm violates labor laws and engages in racial discrimination. That triggered the public hearing last week in which Wackenhut denied those charges.

However, the process could lead to the security firm losing that contract.

Risky move

Typically, businesses do not fight the city over contract awards, said Atkinson, because they run the risk of their job performance being put under enhanced scrutiny.

“You don’t want to fight city hall,” Atkinson said. “I really admire and appreciate Wackenhut having the courage to take this on because you figure that the city and Villaraigosa will try to get revenge somehow.”

In recent years, the SEIU has been actively involved in the local labor movement, and helped change the labor landscape in 2000 when it organized the Justice for Janitors strike, which resulted in a 25 percent wage increase for janitors.

The union then turned its attention to security guards and in 2006 organized guards at properties owned by real estate mogul Robert Maguire.

Through their Stand for Security campaign, union officials expanded their control, striking a deal in January with property management companies that provide security to 80 percent of the county’s commercial real estate. The deal resulted in a 40 percent increase in overall salary and benefits for private security guards.

And the SEIU is continuing to focus its attention on the private security industry, which has experienced significant growth since 9/11; the U.S. Bureau of Labor expects it will grow 17 percent by 2016.

Critics of private security firms claim the industry is plagued by high turnover rates and a lack of proper training for guards. The SEIU wants to remedy the issues by implementing higher area-wide standards, including improved wages and health care benefits.

According to the labor department, 53,180 workers are employed as private security guards in the greater Los Angeles area and make an average salary of $24,570.

“The SEIU is committed to ensuring that private security officers across the country have the opportunity that property services workers such as janitors and engineers have: decent wages, access to affordable health care and union representation,” said Culbreath, the SEIU official.

While the SEIU has increasingly targeted private security firms, Unite HERE Local 11, the hotel and restaurant workers union, successfully sponsored a living wage ordinance backed by council members and the mayor that is being imposed on hotels near the Los Angeles International Airport.