Two San Joaquin County companies — one involved in construction and the other in street traffic control — plan to lay off a combined 254 workers, according to filings with the state.
Power Safety Service will idle 189 workers by Nov. 6 as it closes its facility at 5440 E. Harney Lane in Lodi, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN alert. The company offers traffic management services such as setting up orange cone patterns and detour signs and providing flag personnel who ensure cars and trucks can safely navigate construction zones or road closures.
Stockton Truss, which opened in 1977, is laying off 65 workers by Oct. 18, WARN documents show. The company, at 4408 E. Fremont St. in Stockon, manufactures the structural frames that hold up roofs.
California’s version of the federal WARN Act requires companies with at least 75 employees to give at least 60 days notice to workers who are being laid off.
Power Safety Service has operations not only Lodi, but also in Stockton, Sacramento and 10 other California cities. The company said in a statement that “this is not a closure story, it is a handoff.”
“Power Safety grew from a dirt lot and a handful of trucks into well over a hundred people and a hundred trucks in just over a year, keeping California’s road crews and drivers safe every single day,” a company spokesperson told Stocktonia by email. “Our customers and many of our people are moving over to City Rise, and together that creates the largest traffic control force in Northern California. The name on the door changes. The people, the work and the pride keep rolling.”
Officials with Stockton Truss, which has a companion operation in Carson City, Nevada, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
San Joaquin County’s unemployment rate has held fairly steady of late. It was 6.4% in July, the most recent month for data, up from 6.2% in June . That is below the 7% rate of a year ago, the state Employment Development Department reported. By comparison, California’s overall unemployment rate was 5.3% in July, and the nation’s was 4.4%.