A rally aimed at spurring efforts to unionize New York City's security guards had a distinctive civil rights message as well. Noting that many guards are black and earn less than $18,000 a year, leaders of the rally said unionization would further the dream of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to lift blacks out of poverty. The union behind the organizing drive, Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, sought to show that there was strong community support for improving the guards' wages and benefits.
See "Rally Seeks to Unionize Guards and Push for Raises", Steven Greenhouse, The New York Times, November 14, 2005