Security On The Move: Meet Lori
The “Security On The Move...” campaign is in full gear with many large security contracts up in 2022. Each month, we will include a special Q&A interview with security officers who are movers at their workplace and making a difference. This month we’re featuring Lori Kuehl.
Lori has been a security officer for 26 years and recently helped lead negotiations for the state contract. Her and her co-workers recently ratified a strong new contract with significant wage increases! Read more below.
What inspired you to first become a security officer all those years ago?
When I first applied for the job I had never done security work. When I was in the process of applying I had a real bad accident and was without teeth and needed to get dentures. When I got the call the next day from the hiring person for an interview, I was about to go to St. Louis to get teeth. I said I’m ready. Later she asked, “Lori why didn’t you tell me? We could have planned it for the day after?” I said, “you called so I came.” I did pick up things quickly. Within 2 months she said, “Lori I’m glad I took that chance on you. What I’m hearing out here is you’re one of the best officers out here.” It made me feel good. It made me enjoy working.
What are some memorable moments you’ve had as a security officer?
One day I was in the office and a client came in. She turned and looked at her vehicle. Come to find out her boyfriend had lit a cigarette and dropped it in the car. She looked in her car that had her daughter and all her clothes in it and saw it was full of smoke. And she immediately opened all the doors. What happened? The fire got oxygen and got bigger. I saw smoke from the car and I sprinted out there to get to the car. Another person saw the fire from the third floor and got two fire extinguishers. We had it out before the fire dept got here. A police officer pulled up and said I heard we had a car fire. I said yeah we did but between the two of us we put it out. Then the fire dept came and the police officer said yeah there was a car fire but these two got it taken care of.
The fireman asked how did you guys know what to do? I said I worked security at the Mitsubishi plant and was trained how to put out car fires there.
What did you win in your new contract?
We got huge raises, over a dollar each year for the three year contract. I told Elaine and Lonnell that this is the most we’ve ever gotten in a contract. In the past we’ve proposed big wage increases, but the state always had some excuse not to do it. So when we came up for this last time I was really shocked that they went for it. We also did get more on the 401k.
What inspired you to get involved with the union?
My mom used to work at a plant in Lincoln and she was a union steward and I would go with her to her union meetings. I try to look out for all of us security officers when it comes to the contract.
Anything else you want to say?
We need to make our union stronger than it is right now. We need more co-workers involved when we have meetings and find out what the union’s doing. I’m taking time out of my day to help all of us out and other security officers need to show up too. It can’'t be just one or two people, we need everybody to help make our union strong.