(SUFFOLK COUNTY, NEW YORK) - A group of Security Guards employed at the Patchogue Medford Union Free School District in Suffolk County on Long Island worked with New York State United Teachers’ (NYSUT) Organizers and Labor Relations Staff to Unionize.

NYSUT is chalking up big organizing wins across New York State, thanks to the hard work of its network of its Union Organizers.

Over the past year, the Statewide Teachers Union has brought hundreds of Public and Private Workers across New York into the Union fold.

“If we don’t work, we don’t get paid,” said Security Guard Denise Page-Hastings - noting that, despite providing years of dedicated service and having a roster of experienced Law Enforcement Professionals, the Patchogue Medford Guards lack paid days off and fair compensation.

“I’m going into my nineteenth year, and I started at ($18) an hour and now I’m at ($21.50).  I feel like they’re treating us like cheap labor,” Page-Hastings said.

Patchogue-Medford’s roster of just over 100 Guards became one of NYSUT’s newest Locals after a whirlwind organizing campaign.

“I have been in conversation with the Guards in Patchogue-Medford for a couple of years, but when they reached out to me this past Fall, I could tell that these Workers had reached their breaking point and were tired of being the only group without a Union in their district,” NYSUT Organizer Alexandra Castillo-Kesper said.

After that first contact, there were consistent and scheduled meetings with the Guards and NYSUT’s Organizing Staff, during which they discussed priorities for their first contract, in addition to NYSUT’s organizational structure, their legal protections and the work involved in collectively forming a Public Sector Local.

Several Guards reached out to Castillo-Kesper after a colleague in a neighboring NYSUT Local provided them with her contact information.

Castillo-Kesper explained that word of mouth has sparked several organizing campaigns.

Security Guard Brendan Grogan believes organizing was the right decision for the group: “I felt we weren’t being represented the way we should be.  Other Units within the District had representation and were receiving benefits that we were not.  And it became obvious that without a Union we were never going to get those benefits.”

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