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A majority of the 27 private security guards employed throughout Ramsey County’s government buildings have lost their jobs after being given three business days notice last week by the incoming security firm, GardaWorld, following a contract transition. Some of those workers had been assigned for more than a decade to the downtown county courthouse building that doubles as St. Paul City Hall, raising questions with their employee union about possible violations of their labor contract. “It was very sudden. It’s really hard on me because I have two toddlers,” said Samantha Lagerstrom, a mother of twin three-year-old girls who had been the lead security officer at the Ramsey County Courthouse since 2019.
She said she and other workers had been assured by their labor union in April that they’d be able to keep their positions despite the coming shift in employers, but she was not hired back to the courthouse after undergoing fingerprinting, drug testing, a background check and nearly two days of training through GardaWorld. She got further in the re-hiring process than most. Most of the other security guards were not invited for drug testing or background checks at all, Lagerstrom said on Tuesday.
Outgoing contractor Triangle Services, whose security division is known as Viking Security, has been winding down its operations in Minnesota, and Ramsey County was its last account in that field. The unionized Viking workers were informed last Tuesday that, as the county transitions to a new security contract with GardaWorld, they would not be included. Their last day of employment was Friday. Triangle’s janitorial services were not impacted.
Union files grievance
A Triangle Services operations director confirmed this week that the company employed an average of 24 security guards under the Ramsey County contract. In all, at least 21 of 27 active security guards were let go effective Monday, said Dan Scoggins, a spokesperson for SEIU Local 26, which surveyed its members this week to determine the tally.
GardaWorld has not shared its official figures with the labor union, he said.
The labor union has asked GardaWorld for a complete list of Viking workers who applied for employment with them and those who were hired, but has yet to receive any information, said Brahim Kone, SEIU Local 26 secretary-treasurer. The union filed an official grievance on Friday and intends to file an unfair labor practice with the National Labor Relations Board, he said.
“This is not how transition normally happens,” Kone said. “In our contract, there’s transition language that the member needs to be transferred to the new company, and we don’t know what is going on. We really want to get to the bottom of this.”Some have been at county buildings for more than a decade. Within the industry, keeping security staff in place even as companies transition is not uncommon as a retention practice, as longstanding workers are intimately familiar with building layouts and operations. Some guards have worked at the county buildings for more than a decade. Most of the affected workers have “been there for many years,” Kone said. “It is standard procedure for union employees to be retained by the incoming contractor,” said John Reynolds, director of operations with Woodbury-based Triangle Services, in an email.
Both GardaWorld and Viking Security are signatories to a master labor agreement with SEIU Local 26 governing the rights of security workers at 10 companies that operate throughout the seven-county metro. GardaWorld is a global company with offices in most U.S. states and multiple continents. Calls to GardaWorld’s Roseville offices for comment were not returned.
Ramsey County contracts for security
Ramsey County traditionally contracts with private security companies for no more than two consecutive five-year terms, though Viking was granted an additional two years following the pandemic. “We don’t do any of the hiring or firing. It’s all by contract,” said Demetri Thomas, a building services manager with the county. After 12 years with the county, Viking was long expected to exit the county contract, but many guards assumed they’d be transitioned to GardaWorld, which began management of the security contract Monday. Instead, most learned last week that last Friday was to be their last day of active employment at the county government buildings, which include the downtown courthouse on Kellogg Boulevard, the Government Center at 121 Seventh Place E., the Plato Building at 90 Plato Blvd. West, and the Juvenile and Family Justice Center at 25 West Seventh St., among other locations in St. Paul and Maplewood. Workers have questioned the legality of a mass layoff with three days’ notice, and they noted that only one guard currently stationed at downtown St. Paul City Hall, the Ramsey County courthouse building, will continue in that capacity, requiring rapid training for a largely new workforce.
To find comparable jobs, the outgoing workers needed to be notified “way, way before,” Kone said. “We’re dealing with humans here, but it’s like nobody really cares. Now we have people with families and kids who will be out of work.”
No evidence of a layoff notice
There was no evidence of a layoff notice listed online with the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development’s WARN office, whose State Rapid Response Team coordinates services for dislocated workers. Federal law requires employers with at least 100 employees to notify DEED at least 60 days prior to a mass layoff or plant closing, but the same rules around advance notice do not apply to more limited layoffs.
A DEED spokesperson said Tuesday that the State Rapid Response Team was nevertheless aware of the situation and planned to connect with the labor union to steer impacted workers toward dislocated worker resources, such as career counseling.
Lagerstrom said that while she was not invited to return to the county courthouse following her 12 hours of training with Garda, a company representative pointed her to a website listing alternative openings. Most of what she found there was part-time or overnight. She inquired about a position, but “still haven’t heard anything back,” she said.
Lagerstrom, who said she’s bracing for hardship, said she would file for unemployment benefits and SNAP food assistance for her family. She receives daycare assistance, but it’s contingent on a work requirement, and she has already been notified that she needs to find a new job by late September to maintain the benefit.
“I still haven’t been paid for my 12-hour paid training from Garda,” she said.
Mara H. Gottfried contributed to this report.
