By Bill Shaner
April 12, 2018
Carpenters and activists again rallied in front of the 145 Front St. development earlier this week, but this time for a different reason: They were taking a victory lap of sorts, after a subcontractor on the job was forced to pay a carpenter $15,000 in a wrongful termination settlement.
P&B Partitions, a subcontractor hired by Erland Construction for sheet wall work, was forced by the National Labor Relations Board to pay contractor Eddie Vasquez $15,200 in back pay and $147 in interest, according to a copy of the settlement. Vasquez was fired, according to a release from the New England Regional Council of Carpenters, after he started working with the union on a wage theft case and encouraging others to join the effort.
Vasquez himself was at the rally, and said the money was overdue, but the larger issue of wage theft, of which the union now has 12 open cases, is still ongoing. The carpenters union rallied outside of 145 Front St. weekly for much of last year, demanding a resolution to the wage theft cases.
“We got the upper hand. More workers are coming forward. More workers are telling the truth,” said Vasquez. “What happens is, they prey on the weak. These companies prey on the weak.”
The U.S. Department of Labor complaints the union filed against the contractor are still under review. The cases, including Vasquez’s, mostly center around cash overtime pay promised but never delivered, according to the union. While only 12 complaints have been filed, Vasquez said the number of workers who weren’t paid overtime on the job is closer to 30.
Union organizer Manny Gines said a main goal of the antiwage theft effort, which would be addressed by a wage theft bill currently in the state Senate, is making sure companies with a record of cheating workers don’t get brought on jobs. As it stands now, Gines said, nothing prevents companies from hiring subcontractors with a history of wage theft.
“The bottom line is, they want to use cheap labor,” said Gines. “We’re trying to hold them accountable.”