--- title: "The People Guarding AI's Biggest Labs Are Weighing Their…" canonical: "https://www.metaintro.com/blog/ai-lab-security-workers-strike-vote-contract-pay" language: "en" author: "drashtigarach" published: "2026-09-07T10:27:51.000Z" modified: "2026-10-02T19:47:09.142Z" --- [Back to Blog](/blog) [Strike](/blog/tag/strike)[Jobs](/blog/tag/jobs)[AI](/blog/tag/ai) # The People Guarding AI's Biggest Labs Are Weighing Their First Strike Security workers at OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Salesforce voted to authorize a strike after 19 bargaining sessions produced a 25 cent offer. [![Drashti Garach](https://cdn.metaintro.com/rs:fill:40:40/q:72/plain/images/5719d740-e510-42bc-8017-e040d145f35f_1766029465094.png)Drashti Garach @DrashtiGarach](/blog/author/drashtigarach) [September 7, 2026](/blog/archive/2026/09)Updated October 2, 202612 min read ![Waist height security turnstiles at a building entrance](https://cdn.metaintro.com/rs:fill:1200:675/q:78/plain/images/10165-lobby-turnstiles.png) [https://x.com/intent/tweet?text=The%20People%20Guarding%20AI's%20Biggest%20Labs%20Are%20Weighing%20Their%20First%20Strike&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaintro.com%2Fblog%2Fai-lab-security-workers-strike-vote-contract-pay](https://x.com/intent/tweet?text=The%20People%20Guarding%20AI's%20Biggest%20Labs%20Are%20Weighing%20Their%20First%20Strike&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaintro.com%2Fblog%2Fai-lab-security-workers-strike-vote-contract-pay)[http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaintro.com%2Fblog%2Fai-lab-security-workers-strike-vote-contract-pay](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaintro.com%2Fblog%2Fai-lab-security-workers-strike-vote-contract-pay)[https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaintro.com%2Fblog%2Fai-lab-security-workers-strike-vote-contract-pay&title=The%20People%20Guarding%20AI's%20Biggest%20Labs%20Are%20Weighing%20Their%20First%20Strike](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaintro.com%2Fblog%2Fai-lab-security-workers-strike-vote-contract-pay&title=The%20People%20Guarding%20AI's%20Biggest%20Labs%20Are%20Weighing%20Their%20First%20Strike)[mailto:?subject=The%20People%20Guarding%20AI's%20Biggest%20Labs%20Are%20Weighing%20Their%20First%20Strike&body=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaintro.com%2Fblog%2Fai-lab-security-workers-strike-vote-contract-pay](mailto:?subject=The%20People%20Guarding%20AI's%20Biggest%20Labs%20Are%20Weighing%20Their%20First%20Strike&body=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaintro.com%2Fblog%2Fai-lab-security-workers-strike-vote-contract-pay) Members of [SEIU-United Service Workers West](https://www.seiu-usww.org/) voted this week to authorize a walkout, and [Fast Company reported](https://www.fastcompany.com/91601758/the-security-workers-who-guard-openai-and-anthropic-could-go-on-strike) on September 3 that the workers involved provide building security at [OpenAI](https://openai.com/), [Anthropic](https://www.anthropic.com/), [Salesforce](https://www.salesforce.com/) and [Google](https://about.google/). They are asking for a $30 minimum wage and expanded benefits, and their union says the contractors bargaining with them have offered 25 cents an hour. At [Metaintro](https://www.metaintro.com), we cover disputes like this because the contractor model behind them now shapes millions of jobs at companies whose direct employees are very well paid. Here is what is being negotiated, why the AI companies are not at the table, and what it tells you about contracted work. ## What Are the Security Workers Actually Asking For? A $30 minimum wage and expanded benefits, which the union has been pursuing through negotiations with major security contractors including [Allied Universal](https://www.aus.com/) and [Securitas](https://www.securitas.com/). Those two firms, not the technology companies, are the employers on the other side of the table. The strike authorization vote does not by itself trigger a walkout. It gives union leadership the mandate to call one if bargaining stays where it is. The number that turned this from a negotiation into a public dispute is the counter-offer. According to the union, after 19 bargaining sessions Allied Universal proposed a wage increase of only 25 cents an hour in 2027, with no raises for the following three years. The union's president called that offer shameful, wrong, and deeply, deeply disrespectful. Whatever view you take of the dispute, a four-year package with a single 25 cent step is unusual enough to explain why the talks reached a strike vote rather than a settlement. The context that makes the ask concrete is the cost of living where the work is. In previous demonstrations, security workers have described being unable to afford the Bay Area, which is where the buildings they guard are located. A $30 hourly rate in San Francisco is not an aspirational figure for that market, and the gap between it and the current offer is the whole dispute. ## Why Are the AI Companies Not the Ones Negotiating? Because the workers are not their employees. This is the single most important structural fact in the story, and it applies to a great deal of work at large companies. Security, cleaning, catering and reception at major employers are frequently delivered by contractors, which means the workers are on the contractor's payroll, covered by the contractor's benefits, and bargaining with the contractor rather than with the household name on the building. The practical effect is that pay for those roles is set by a competitive services market rather than by the economics of the company being served. A firm can be extraordinarily well capitalised and the people guarding its front door can still be negotiating over cents, because the two payrolls are not connected. This is the same structure that has produced disputes over [subcontracted delivery drivers](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/amazon-nlrb-subcontracted-drivers) and [misclassification claims from platform drivers](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/amazon-flex-drivers-file-arbitration-claims), and it is why [clearer rules on subcontractor hiring](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/new-rules-hiring-subcontractors) keep returning as a policy question. There is a pressure point in that structure, though, and the union has found it. Client companies care intensely about service continuity even when they have no legal role in the pay talks. That gives contracted workers indirect leverage over a party that is not formally in the room, which is exactly what a strike authorization at high-profile sites is designed to create. ## What Happened at Anthropic Last Week? Something that made the leverage visible. Fast Company reported, citing Business Insider, that Anthropic employees were instructed to work from home last week in anticipation of a potential strike by unionized workers. The report also notes the company has robust security arrangements and communicates openly with employees when facing threats. The union's president drew the obvious conclusion in public, saying that Anthropic clearly understands how indispensable security workers are even if the companies bargaining with them do not. That is a rhetorical framing rather than a neutral description, but the underlying observation stands: a company that changes its working arrangements in anticipation of a security walkout has demonstrated that the service is not optional. For anyone who works in a contracted role, that sequence is worth studying. The moment a client adjusts its operations because of your potential absence is the moment your bargaining position becomes concrete rather than theoretical. It does not change who signs your paycheck, but it does change what the people signing it can afford to ignore. ## Why Has Security Become More Important at AI Companies? Because the threat environment around these firms has changed. Fast Company reported that police in San Francisco have fielded a number of threats against employees of OpenAI and Anthropic, and that some technology companies have started investing in armed guards. High-profile executives in the sector have faced threats in recent months, and the antipathy toward AI that has grown alongside the technology has a physical dimension that did not exist a few years ago. The spending follows. Citing a Wall Street Journal analysis, the report notes that [Palantir](https://www.palantir.com/), [Oracle](https://www.oracle.com/) and Salesforce increased their security spending by millions of dollars in 2025. When client companies are demonstrably willing to pay more for the service, workers delivering that service have a reasonable argument that some of the increase should reach them, and that argument is considerably stronger than it was during a period of flat demand. This is the unusual feature of this dispute. Most contracted service negotiations happen against a backdrop of clients trying to reduce cost. This one is happening while clients are actively increasing what they spend on the category, which changes the shape of the bargaining even though the workers are not party to those client contracts. ## What Do the Numbers Say About Security Work as a Career? They say it is a large, stable occupation that pays poorly relative to where much of the work is located. The [US Bureau of Labor Statistics](https://www.bls.gov/) reports that [security guards](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/protective-service/security-guards.htm) had median pay of $38,050 a year in 2025, with a typical entry requirement of a high school diploma. Employment across security guards and gambling surveillance officers stood at 1,304,000 in 2025, and the projected growth to 2035 is 1 percent, which the agency classes as slower than average. That 1 percent hides the more useful number. The agency notes that most openings are expected to come from the need to replace workers who transfer to other occupations or leave the labour force entirely, with an employment change of about 11,200 over the decade. High turnover in a large occupation means there are consistently jobs available, and it also means employers are perpetually recruiting rather than retaining. Both of those facts sit underneath a dispute about whether the pay is enough to live where the work is. Set the median against the ask and the arithmetic is stark. A $30 hourly rate corresponds to roughly $62,400 a year at full-time hours, which is far above the national median for the occupation and considerably closer to what living costs in San Francisco require. The gap between a national occupational median and a specific high-cost labour market is where this entire negotiation sits. ## Does a Strike Vote Usually Lead to a Strike? Frequently not, and that is worth understanding rather than treating a vote as an outcome. A strike authorization is a bargaining instrument. It changes the cost of continued refusal for the employer, and a meaningful share of authorizations are followed by movement at the table rather than by a walkout. The pattern is visible across sectors, from [dockworkers suspending a strike to continue negotiations](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/dockworkers-union-suspends-strike) to [hotel workers preparing for action as talks stalled](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/hilton-workers-strike-preparations). When walkouts do happen, they often end in ratified contracts that would not have been offered otherwise, as with [Cornell workers ending a month-long strike with a new contract](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/cornell-workers-new-contract-2024) and [IKEA workers ratifying a deal after action over wages](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/ikea-iam-strike-updates). The point is not that striking always works. It is that the authorization vote is the beginning of a phase of bargaining rather than the end of one. There is also precedent specific to this city and this kind of work. Ancillary workers at technology companies, including janitors and food service staff, have walked off the job in San Francisco in recent years when contract negotiations failed to produce meaningful raises. The workers now voting are following a route that has been used before by people in adjacent roles at the same buildings. ## How Do You Move From Guarding Into Better-Paid Security Work? By treating general guarding as an entry point rather than a destination, which the occupational data quietly supports. With a median of $38,050 and 1 percent projected growth to 2035, staying in the same post is the one route that reliably does not improve your position. The roles that pay materially more sit adjacent to it: corporate security management, access control and systems administration, investigations, loss prevention leadership, and health and safety coordination. All of them recruit from people who started on a desk or a door. The lever in each case is a specific credential rather than time served. Licensing requirements vary by state and by country, and the qualifications that shift you from guarding a building to managing how a building is secured are usually short, employer-recognised and considerably cheaper than a degree. Employers in this field hire on demonstrable certification far more than on tenure, which cuts both ways: years alone will not move you, and a targeted course can. There is also a route that this dispute makes visible. Contracted workers who understand client operations, incident procedure and reporting are exactly the people client companies hire directly when they decide to bring a function in-house. Direct employment usually means better pay, better benefits and a seat inside the organisation whose revenue actually funds the role. Being the contractor everyone at the client site knows by name is not a small career asset, and it is one that only builds if you are visible rather than invisible. ## What Does This Mean for Your Career if You Work on Contract? First, know exactly who your employer is and what that means for your pay. If you work at a famous company through a services contractor, your wage is set by your contractor's bid, not by the client's revenue. That is not a moral point, it is a practical one, because it tells you where to direct any effort to change your pay and which negotiations actually affect you. Second, understand that your leverage tends to be highest when the client's dependence on your service is most visible. Contracted roles that are easy to substitute have weak positions. Roles where a gap in coverage changes how the client operates, as building security clearly does, have stronger ones. If you are choosing between contracted roles, the ones embedded in a client's daily operation are usually more secure and more negotiable than the ones on the periphery. Third, treat the occupation's structure as a reason to build transferable credentials early. Security work has a high replacement rate and slow growth, which means openings are plentiful but progression is not automatic. Licences, specialist training and adjacent qualifications are what move people from general guarding into corporate security, investigations, systems and safety roles that pay materially better. In an occupation where the median sits at $38,050, the difference between staying at the median and moving beyond it is usually a specific certification rather than years served. ## Related Articles - [An NLRB Judge Just Forced Amazon to the Bargaining Table in San Francisco](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/amazon-nlrb-bargaining-order-san-francisco-warehouse-workers-2026) - [Boeing's Union Negotiation Woes Highlight Industry Struggles](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/boeing-union-negotiations) - [BorgWarner Workers Stand Firm and Reject a Second Contract Offer](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/borgwarner-workers-strike-2024) - [Kaiser Permanente Workers End a Month-Long Strike in California and Hawaii](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/kaiser-permanente-strike-ends-31000-healthcare-workers-return-2026) - [Nurse Strikes Are Spreading Across Major US Hospital Systems](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/nurse-strikes-spreading-us-hospital-systems) - [What the New Labor Department Union Reporting Rule Means for Workers](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/labor-department-union-reporting-rule-workers-2026) - [New Zealand Moves to Clarify Employment Classification for Contractors](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/clarification-employer-vs-contractor) - [Condé Nast and New Yorker Union Strike a Deal to Ease Worker Concerns](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/conde-nast-new-yorker-union-agreement) - [Detroit Axle Workers Approve a New Contract and Secure Their Jobs](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/detroit-axle-contract) - [Bay Area Fast Food Chains Grapple with Layoffs Amid a Minimum Wage Rise](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/bay-area-fast-food-layoffs-minimum-wage-hike) - [What Private Equity's Push Into Skilled Trades Means for Contractors](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/private-equity-push-skilled-trades-contractors) - [City and Guilds Staff Edge Toward Strike as New Owner Eyes UK Job Cuts](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/city-and-guilds-staff-strike-uk-job-cuts-2026) ## People Also Asked ### Q: Are the striking workers employed by OpenAI and Anthropic? A: No. They are employed by security contractors including Allied Universal and Securitas, and staffed at buildings used by OpenAI, Anthropic, Salesforce and Google. That is why the pay negotiations are with the contractors rather than with the technology companies, even though the technology companies are the ones whose operations a walkout would disrupt. ### Q: What are the workers asking for? A: A $30 minimum wage and expanded benefits. Their union says that after 19 bargaining sessions the contractor Allied Universal proposed a wage increase of 25 cents an hour in 2027, with no raises for the following three years. The gap between those two positions is what produced the strike authorization vote. ### Q: Does a strike authorization vote mean a strike is definitely happening? A: No. Authorization gives union leadership a mandate to call a walkout if negotiations do not move, and a significant share of authorizations are followed by a settlement rather than a strike. It functions as leverage in bargaining, which is why it is often used at the point where talks have stalled rather than as a first step. Contracted work sits behind a surprising share of jobs at the biggest names in technology, and the pay for it is set somewhere most workers never see. [Metaintro](https://www.metaintro.com) tracks openings across security, facilities and operations roles, including the employers who hire directly rather than through a contractor. 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