Some Workers Need Jobs as Much as Builders Need Workers. Cities Connect Them. (CA)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By Joe Gose
Jan. 8, 2019

A year ago, Jeromy Gaviola was struggling to find steady and meaningful work in San Francisco. Living in the working-class neighborhood of Hunters Point, he heard about a program that was training residents to build the Chase Center, the $1 billion, 18,000-seat arena in Mission Bay that will be the new home of the Golden State Warriors when it opens this fall.

Mr. Gaviola, 33, applied to the program, was accepted and completed six weeks of training in early September. He then began working at the arena and was recently installing insulation and acoustical ceiling tiles above the Warriors’ practice court.

…

Facing a tight labor pool, developers, public officials and community organizations are using commercial projects to provide residents with careers in construction. Together, they’re making an effort to recruit men and women from impoverished neighborhoods or challenged populations, such as former prison inmates. In booming markets like San Francisco, Denver and Miami, where gentrification is squeezing affordable housing, demand for these types of programs is growing.

The training programs are also occurring in smaller markets. In Milwaukee, for example, Gorman & Company, an apartment developer, has teamed up with city, state and community agencies to give former inmates on-the-job training restoring dilapidated, tax-foreclosed homes, which are then rented to low-income earners.

“There’s a very limited number of jobs that people re-entering society can do, but they are key to our success,” said Ted Matkom, president of the Wisconsin market for Gorman. “They can earn a good wage and are motivated.”

In some cases, contractors are required to meet local hiring targets, particularly on big projects that include incentives or are providing a public benefit. Cities and community organizations are recruiting and training workers to help builders meet the thresholds.

In addition to classes, the programs typically provide tools, boots and other equipment to the candidates, and they pay for items such as apprentice application fees, child care and gas. Case managers at the organizations even make sure newly employed graduates receive wake-up calls.

The developers of Chase Center are getting a hand from San Francisco’s CityBuild Academy, a program that has trained about 1,400 workers since it was introduced in 2006. Among other services, the academy provides 18 weeks of training for apprenticeships in partnership with City College of San Francisco. JPMorgan Chase, which acquired the naming rights to the arena, has also kicked in $350,000 to fund special training courses.

To date, those programs and others have provided union apprenticeships to 81 graduates, according to representatives from CityBuild and the National Basketball Association’s Warriors. The workers can make hourly wages of $20 to $30, not including overtime, said Joshua Arce, director of work force development for San Francisco.

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Gov. Pritzker Strengthens Working Families with Actions for Higher Wages and Protections on First Full Day in Office (IL)

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Standing with Working Families, Gov. Pritzker Takes Critical First Steps, Including Women’s Pay Equity, Prosecuting Wage Theft, Using Project Labor Agreements, Requiring Prevailing Wage and Promoting Diversity in State Contracts and Moving Employees to Appropriate Steps

Tuesday, January 15, 2019 – Office of the Governor

Springfield, Ill. – Standing with working families on his first full day in office, Governor JB Pritzker took important first steps to raise Illinoisans’ wages by signing a robust initial package of legislation and executive orders designed to raise and protect their wages.

“This administration is putting Springfield back on the side of working families and these measures are a critical first step in the work that will define my administration, especially as we move toward raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “On the first day of a new administration, we’re enshrining our state’s values to create real and lasting opportunity for the middle class.

“For hardworking people across Illinois, know that your state government has your back. Whether it’s pay equity for women, prosecuting employers who engage in wage theft, instituting prevailing wage requirements, using project labor agreements, restoring state employees’ steps, or promoting diversity in state contracts, these steps are the first of many to take bold action to support working families. This work is far from done, and I look forward to continuing to work with the General Assembly to advance core priorities so working families across Illinois can thrive.”

Today, Governor Pritzker signed Executive Order 2019-02, which will:

* Require that the Department of Central Management Services and the Department of Human Rights shall review the state’s pay plan to eliminate bias generated by asking employees for salary history, which often disadvantages women, particularly women of color. The State of Illinois will no longer ask prospective employees questions about salary history, because of historic salary disadvantages women face.

* Help protect workers from wage theft. The order directs the Illinois Department of Labor to expeditiously handle all cases of wage theft and day labor exploitation, including referring appropriate cases to the Attorney General. This will allow the administration to hold bad actors accountable and protect workers.

* Require that all state agencies comply with the Project Labor Agreements Act.

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(PDF Copy of Executive Order)

Lee Carter’s Campaign for Labor Rights in Virginia Is Important for All Working Americans

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His fight against “right-to-work” should inspire more Democrats to challenge the atrocious Taft-Hartley law.

By John Nichols
JANUARY 7, 2019

Congressman Mark Pocan and Senator Bernie Sanders sent an important-if, sadly, little noted-signal last year about how to stand up for worker rights. They introduced a national Workplace Democracy Act that proposed to knock down the barriers to union organizing and collective bargaining that have been erected by politicians who serve as errand boys for corporate power.

Decrying “a corporate-driven agenda that makes it harder for middle class families to get ahead,” Pocan, the Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair who is a member of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades union, announced that “The Workplace Democracy Act restores real bargaining rights to workers and repeals the right to work laws like those that [Wisconsin Governor Scott] Walker has used to undercut American workers.”

Rejecting the caution that many Democrats have displayed with regard to struggles for labor rights, Pocan and Sanders went to the heart of the matter. Their legislation proposed to “end right to work for less laws by repealing Section 14(b) of the Taft Hartley Act, which has allowed 28 states to pass legislation eliminating the ability of unions to collect fair share fees from those who benefit from union contracts and activities.”

So-called “right to work” laws were enacted more than 70 years ago in many Southern and border states, where segregationist politicians (most of them Democrats) sought to block the rise industrial unions that organized workers of all races. But, in recent years, these laws have moved north-to historic industrial states such as Wisconsin and Michigan. They’re not popular. Just last year, Missouri voters rejected a right-to-work proposal by a 2-1 margin.

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California needs 200K construction workers to help affordability (CA)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

by Steve Randall
20 Jan 2019

The lack of housing supply has multiple factors including the cost of borrowing and materials; but a shortage of labor is also a major factor in many areas.

In California, the Housing and Community Development Department has said that the sector needs improved productivity to tackle housing affordability. But a new study says there is a key barrier to this – a workforce shortage.

Smart Cities Prevail, a construction industry-focused non-profit, says that the residential construction industry in California must do more to attract the 200,000 workers it needs to meet the ambitious goal to improve affordability.

“The data shows residential construction work is more dangerous, economically risky, and lower paying than most other jobs in our economy,” said study author Scott Littlehale. “When you consider these dynamics alongside the industry’s aging workforce, its failure to institutionalize investments in apprenticeship training, and a shrinking supply of young workers and immigrants, it is clear why the housing sector is struggling to attract the new workers it needs.”

Littlehale found residential construction workers earn 24% less per year than all other jobs on average, and less than half have health insurance coverage through their employer. This is exacerbated by a typically longer commute.

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Palm Springs should back unions by denying Virgin Hotel project timeline extension (CA)

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Robert Julian Stone, Special to The Desert Sun
Published 8:00 a.m. PT Jan. 6, 2019

On Wednesday, Jan. 9, Palm Springs’ City Council will consider Grit Development’s request for an extension of completion timelines for the Virgin Hotel. The developer is asking for a three-year extension but, despite the Planning Commission’s 5-2 vote recommending that more time be granted, there is simply no justification for any extension on this project.

On Nov. 15, 2017, the council granted Grit a rebate of 75 percent of the transient occupancy taxes (TOT) for 30 years on the new Virgin Hotel and set forth a timeline for completion. The city estimates the value of this TOT rebate to be between $18 and $50 million.

This year, the State Department of Industrial Relations opined that a TOT rebate and other public funding agreements between the city and Grit Development for downtown work done so far, including on the completed Kimpton hotel, make Grit responsible for paying its construction workers a prevailing wage.

Grit wants a three-year extension because the developer intends to keep the promised TOT rebates while appealing the prevailing wage determination to the state. If that appeal fails, Grit’s attorney has indicated the developer will litigate the issue in court.

It appears the developer simply refuses to pay a living wage to workers on this project – and is willing to sue to be relieved of that responsibility.

Even with an extended construction deadline, it’s likely we will be exactly where we are now in three years. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration; the Democrat legislative super-majority; and the courts are unlikely to look favorably upon such a request.

It is disappointing that City Council did not pro-actively require prevailing wages for the project at the time they approved the generous TOT rebate for the Virgin project in 2017. Palm Springs is an increasingly expensive place to live. It is incumbent upon our legislators to protect the livelihood of local workers and advocate for a living wage

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Officials, developers: wage dispute due to “miscommunication” (CT)

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By Jordan Grice
Updated 4:06 pm EST, Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Bridgeport officials and developers of the new concert amphitheater are saying wage disputes over the project were due to miscommunication.

“Although it was never specified, the Harbor Yard Amphitheater, HYA, renovation was always intended to be a prevailing wage project,” said developer Howard Saffan in an email to Hearst Connecticut Media.

Tensions among construction workers building the amphitheater – the closed minor league baseball park – have apparently subsided, following confirmation that construction of the venue will, now, adhere to state law.

The Department of Labor notified the city’s economic development department this month that the project violated prevailing wage laws.

The prevailing wage statute requires contractors involved in big-ticket construction or renovations involving public funding use an assigned wage rate and DOL certified payroll for their workers.

A letter from state labor officials claimed that the contracting agency of the project – which according to the project contract is Saffan-failed to request a prevailing wage pay rate schedule or include it in the bid specifications.

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DC Suit of Florida Company is a Primer on Misclassification (DC)

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by Jim Kollaer | January 18, 2019

The recent lawsuit filed by the District of Colombia attorney general against Florida Company Power Design, Inc., labor brokers JVA Services, LLC and DDK Electric Inc., that alleges 535 workers were misclassified as Independent Contractors, or 1099 workers, provides a primer on the way that some construction companies create vehicles to avoid taxes, the payment of overtime, the provision of worker’s compensation, or medical benefits. The lawsuit demands a jury trial where the defendants will have the chance to defend themselves, but the charges detailed give a full picture of how to set up and execute a plan to use independent contractors to act as subcontractors on specific projects for a specific company.

Generally, the process that the attorney general alleges representatives of Power Design used to set up the labor brokers in business and then use those labor brokers to provide manpower for their projects, specifically in the DC area, is being repeated across the country every day. This happens specifically in the construction industry, but it also is being used in various iterations by companies in a broad range of other industries and services as well.

The details of the lawsuit are very specific in how the companies were set up, legalized on a Friday and working on Power Design projects on a Monday. Companies were allegedly set up under names and with owners who had no experience in running a company but who were coached and given contracts and employment documents allegedly by Power Design. They, in turn, provided workers who allegedly worked for Power Design as independent contractors for sub-par wages and with none of the protections provided to Power Design’s jobsite superintendents and foreman on the same jobs.

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Miami-Dade County helps victims of wage theft (FL)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By Layron Livingston – Reporter
Posted: 6:28 PM, January 22, 2019

MIAMI – You got the job. You did the work. But what do you do when you don’t get paid?

Wage theft is a real issue impacting workers in a wide array of industries, from restaurants and retail to construction and the corporate world.

“I think you have a lot of employees who are being promised payments, and sometimes, that promise may be fulfilled, but in many times, it’s not,” Bryant Acevedo said.

Acevedo is a public information officer with the Miami-Dade County Office of Consumer Protection.

“Do you try to sue? What do you do? I think there are a lot of people who don’t even know where to start,” he said.

Acevedo said the consumer protection office’s Wage Theft Program helps workers investigate and recover unpaid wages for free.

The office was able to successfully conciliate $361,742 worth of unpaid wages in 2017.
“Wage theft is where you have an employee who is simply not being paid [or] compensated for their work,” Acevedo said.

Types of complaints handled by the Office of Consumer Protection Wage Theft Program include:

Unpaid wages
Underpaid wages
Fewer hours than worked
Work completed after notice of separation
Work completed during pay period of termination
Rate lower than agreed upon
Unpaid vacation/sick time
Unpaid commissions
Bounced paychecks
Promised payments

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Court: General contractor can be cited for subcontractor violations (LA)

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By Kim Slowey
Dec. 19, 2018

Dive Brief:

  • A U.S. Appeals Court judge for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans has ruled that OSHA can cite general contractors – even if their employees are not affected – for subcontractor safety violations. The ruling came after Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta requested that the 5th Circuit review an OSHA administrative court decision that said a general contractor could only be cited for safety threats to its own employees.
  • In 2017, a Denver Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Commission administrative judge ruled that Hensel Phelps could not be cited by the agency for safety hazards created by one of its subcontractors on a project in Austin, Texas. However, the 5th Circuit said more recent rulings have rendered the case law on which the administrative judge based his decision “obsolete” and said that Hensel Phelps could be held responsible for safety on the multi-employer site as a “controlling employer.”
  • According to court documents, Hensel Phelps hired subcontractor Haynes-Eaglin-Waters (HEW) for a library construction project, and HEW, in turn, hired CVI Development as a sub-subcontractor to perform demolition, excavation and other work. Hensel Phelps and HEW project staff allegedly directed CVI to work in an unsafe excavation area. An OSHA inspector cited both Hensel Phelps and CVI for safety violations. The OSH Commission will now review the matter again, taking the 5th Circuit’s decision into consideration.

Dive Insight:

While workers might have once been expected simply to accept the risks of working on a dangerous construction site as part of their job, contractors, as well as state and local authorities, have made safety a priority. And authorities have become more willing to pursue criminal charges against contractors when their disregard results in injury or death.

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