Security guards who protect tech offices across Silicon Valley, including companies with operations along Palo Alto's Stanford Research Park corridor, plan to walk off the job Friday, Sept. 18.

The planned strike covers about 14,000 guards across California, spanning Los Angeles County, the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley. The guards are represented by Service Employees International Union-United Service Workers West (SEIU-USWW), which filed a 72-hour strike notice Tuesday, Sept. 15. Any shift beginning at or after 4:30 a.m. Friday would be affected, Business Insider reported.

The union said its members guard buildings for Amazon, Microsoft, Salesforce, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta and Nvidia. Several of those companies operate offices in Palo Alto, though no source has confirmed which local sites would be directly affected by the walkout.

The fight is over pay. Security contractors including Allied Universal Security Services, Securitas, GardaWorld and others offered a 65-cent hourly raise over two years, according to KQED. The union wants $30 an hour.

SEIU-USWW spokesperson Stephen Boardman told KQED on Sept. 15 that the union is seeking "a path for $30 [an hour] for all officers."

That demand reflects a wide gap. California security guards earn a median hourly wage of $20.09, well below the $28.16 statewide median for all workers, according to a UC Berkeley Labor Center study released in April. In the Bay Area, more than two-thirds of guards qualify as low-wage workers. Statewide, about 80% of guards earn less than the MIT Living Wage for their region. Annual turnover hit nearly 92% in 2024. More than 40% of the state's roughly 186,000 private guards are Latino and nearly a quarter are Black.

Jerry Longoria, an Allied Universal guard with 25 years on the job, told KQED he has been through five contract negotiations. Longoria lives in a single-room occupancy hotel without a private bathroom or kitchen. He recalled guarding a Cartier store where a customer bought a $1.5 million necklace.

"If people got that kind of money, and they wanna pay us pennies, that's unfair, that's mistreatment," Longoria told KQED on Sept. 15.

The union declared the action an unfair labor practice strike, citing bad-faith bargaining, surveillance of officers, retaliatory discipline and interference with workers' right to strike. Allied Universal told KQED it does not comment on ongoing labor negotiations. Securitas did not respond to KQED's request for comment.

The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor unanimously voted to sanction the walkout.

A settlement is still possible. Bargaining sessions were scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 16, and Thursday, Sept. 17. Anthropic already told San Francisco staff in late August to work remotely for two days after Allied Universal warned that guards might strike, Business Insider reported. Whether Palo Alto-area offices face similar disruptions depends on what happens at the bargaining table before Friday morning.