Published
October 29, 2025
Unions are adept at leveraging government power to drive their agenda. Sometimes this includes government giving unions the ability to force propaganda on workers. The Philadelphia City Council provides a current example. The Council is pushing legislation that would require employers to pay for security guards to receive 40 hours of in-person training upon hiring and eight hours of training each subsequent year. So far so good. Who wouldn’t want security guards to get training, especially since some of them carry firearms.
Here's the catch. The training cannot be provided by the employer, but instead must be delivered by a non-profit. This could include a labor union. And surprise, the legislation is being pushed by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Among the subjects certain to be discussed during training is how to form and join a union, perhaps the SEIU.
It’s also coincidental that SEIU Local 32BJ is in the midst of contract negotiations with companies that provide security guards. So the SEIU may just be using the City Council to apply pressure on the companies to make bargaining concessions, at which point maybe the concern about training security guards will go away.
None of this is to the advantage of taxpayers. If the proposal passes, it will drive up costs. If it winds up being withdrawn, the City Council will have wasted time and effort simply to benefit one side in private sector collective bargaining. Neither of those options is a particularly good look for the SEIU.
About the authors
Michael Billet
Michael Billet, director of policy research for Employment Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, keeps members and internal Chamber policy staff abreast of pending labor, immigration, and health care legislation, as well as federal regulatory and subregulatory activities. He is also responsible for planning the Chamber’s annual workplace and community wellness forum.
Glenn Spencer
Spencer oversees the Chamber’s work on immigration, retirement security, traditional labor relations, human trafficking, wage hour and worker safety issues, EEOC matters, and state labor and employment law.
