A Tacoma Tideflats security company and its security guards are at odds over whether the guards can join the longshore union.

Securitas Security Services faces charges of unfair labor practices from the National Labor Relations Board after employees said they were threatened with losing their jobs if they supported joining the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents 60,000 dock and warehouse workers on the West Coast, or testified against the company at labor hearings.

And one security guard says he was fired for promoting the longshore union at work.

Securitas – which calls itself the world’s largest security company – provides security at the APM Terminal on the Sitcum Waterway. That terminal serves Maersk and Horizon shipping lines.

“Workers there who are security guards have been fighting to be in the ILWU since last summer,” Jon Brier, a longshore labor organizer in Seattle, said Monday. “They got together because of intolerable wages and working conditions.”

Securitas denies the NLRB complaint and says it’s being harassed by the union.

“We believe (the complaint) is without merit, and we intend to take every legal action to defend ourselves,” said Gui Thomas, Securitas’ vice president of labor relations. “Because we won’t recognize (the longshore union), they are harassing us with frivolous unfair-labor practice charges.”

Up until last summer the two dozen or so security guards employed by Securitas were represented by the Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America union, according to the NLRB complaint. The employees voted out of that union and sought to join the ILWU Local 28, which includes security guards employed by the Port of Tacoma and guards at the Port of Portland.

But the employees’ union membership now is in limbo.

Richard Ahearn, NLRB regional director in Seattle, said there is an NLRB provision that prohibits the agency from certifying a union of security guards if it includes members that aren’t guards. But Ahearn noted that employers can voluntarily recognize such a union.

And while Securitas’ guards elsewhere are unionized, Thomas said Securitas doesn’t want its employees joining a mixed union – such as the longshore, which represents guards and nonguards – because action of the whole union could affect the guards. For example, if the longshore union went on strike, then – in this case – the port would be left unguarded, Thomas said.

“We’ll recognize any union certified by the National Labor Relations Board,” Thomas said.

Ahearn said that the federal agency filed its complaint against Securitas in February after NLRB staff investigated the allegations of unfair labor practices.

Anybody can file a charge, but a complaint from the NLRB means the agency has determined there’s merit to the alleged violations, Ahearn said.

According to the NLRB complaint, Securitas managers:

 • Threatened employees that they would be out of a job the next day if they voted out of the security and police professionals union.

 • Threatened an employee that if he testified at a NLRB hearing he would lose his job.

 • Threatened that if the employees supported the union, Securitas would cease its operations at APM Terminals.

Jack Craig, APM Terminal manager, said Tuesday that the terminal operating company isn’t involved with Securitas’ labor discussions.

“Our position is that it’s between them and their guards,” he said.

A hearing on the complaint is scheduled for April 29.

Ahearn said the agency also is investigating additional charges against the company.

One comes from Tacoma resident George Twiggs, a Securitas security guard until Valentine’s Day, when Twiggs said he was fired for handing out union fliers and posting one at his work station that read “Welcome to ILWU country, your new union.”

Thomas declined to comment on Twiggs’ case. But he said the company “has not and would not” discipline anyone or take action against anyone for union beliefs and affiliations.

“We do require all people to follow all security rules and regulations, and any employee who doesn’t will face disciplinary action,” he said.

Brier said Securitas guards want better wages, improved working conditions and more affordable health care. Twiggs said he was making about $11.50 an hour as a Securitas guard.

“The wages here are the lowest, lower than a lot of other terminals,” he said.

Brier said guards doing similar work in California earn about $24 per hour. Thomas, with Securitas, declined to comment on benefits and said that $24 per hour isn’t realistic for the company.

Kelly Kearsley: 253-597-8573

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