January 28, 2017 Updated: January 28, 2017 12:05am

Thousands of security officers who work on hundreds of sites in Silicon Valley, including at Facebook, Cisco and Genentech, have unionized to push for higher wages and better benefits, SEIU United Service Workers West, a union that represents California workers, announced Saturday.

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The 3,000 security officers are employed at G4S, Allied Universal, Cypress Private Security and Securitas, firms that provide security services on a contract basis to other businesses. The officers earn an hourly wage in the $12 to $20 range, not enough to live comfortably in the Bay Area, union officials said. Roughly 600 are located at Facebook and work for Allied Universal; others work at Google, Adobe and Qualcomm, among others.

“I like my job, but it doesn’t pay enough to take care of a family in the Silicon Valley,” said Jiovanny Martinez, a 29-year-old Allied Universal security officer who works at Facebook.

Martinez, who makes $18 an hour, said he lives in a three-bedroom home with eight other people in San Jose. He pays $600 a month — a portion of the house’s rent. Martinez, his wife and his two young daughters live in one of the bedrooms.

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More service workers are pushing for higher wages and benefits. In 2015, unionized shuttle drivers transporting Facebook employees approved a contract that would raise their salaries from $18 to $24.50 an hour. That spurred other tech bus drivers to push for similar contracts.

Google, Apple and other companies have tried to bring their security staff in-house, which would provide more job stability. It is unclear how many security officers Google has employed in-house. The SEIU said some of the 3,000 security officers who joined the union do contract work at Google.

Google, Facebook and Qualcomm declined to comment. Apple, Genentech and Adobe did not respond to requests.

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