Eduardo Canales brought his daughter, Dariana, to the rally at Callisto Commons in Fridley. The development used Environmental StoneWorks, a contractor that Canales said misclassified him as an independent contractor when he installed stone veneers like the one visible at the Fridley site.
Members of the Laborers union (LIUNA) staged a demonstration June 24 outside a subsidized housing development in Fridley, publicly shaming a construction-supply company they allege has cheated both workers and taxpayers.
Environmental StoneWorks’ veneer product was on full display at the future site of Callisto Commons, a development along University Avenue Northeast where LIUNA members rallied with lawmakers and community supporters.
The action kept the heat on StoneWorks, which faces allegations of discrimination and worker misclassification. But the event also raised awareness of new laws passed this year by the labor-endorsed “trifecta” of state lawmakers, including new labor standards on subsidized housing projects and stiffer penalties for worker misclassification.
“This isn’t about a few bad actors,” Rep. Emma Greenman (D-Minneapolis) said. “This is about a business model that is about extracting from workers, extracting from taxpayers. The business model is what has to change.”
And it likely will, thanks to new laws requiring contractors on developments that access funds through the state’s Low-Income Housing Tax Credit – like Callisto Commons in Fridley – to pay prevailing wages. Minnesota is the first state to tie prevailing wage to the tax credit.
Other measures now on the books will make it harder for contractors with a history of labor violations to bid on publicly subsidized projects, give state regulators new tools to shut down job sites where labor violations are occurring and create new penalties of up to $10,000 for employers that misclassify their workers as independent contractors.
LIUNA members from across the country, in the area for an organizing conference, joined the rally.
That’s what Eduardo Canales alleges happened on job sites where he installed Environmental StoneWorks’ product over a period of four years.
Although he worked exclusively as an installer for the firm, Canales said he was never classified as an employee by the firm. As an independent contractor, he was ineligible for workers’ compensation, collective bargaining rights and overtime pay – even in weeks when he worked 70 or more hours installing the stone veneer.
“It means if there is an accident and someone gets hurt on an Environmental StoneWorks project, it is my problem, not theirs,” Canales said through a Spanish language interpreter at the rally. “There was a guy who broke his foot working for Environmental StoneWorks, and instead of providing medical treatment, he said his boss terminated him.”
StoneWorks’ manufacturing facility, meanwhile, is the subject of a discrimination complaint filed with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights. Angel Torres, who worked at the North Branch facility from 2009 until he was fired in December 2023, said the company offered two wage scales, one for immigrant workers and another, higher scale for those born in the U.S.
Torres, also using a language interpreter, told rally-goers that he complained to management that newly hired “American” workers were making $2 more per hour than immigrants who had been working at the plant for several years. “I believe that’s the reason I was fired from this company, for speaking up for the workers,” he said.
Angel Torres (L) said StoneWorks discriminated against immigrant workers at its North Branch manufacturing facility.
“The reason we came to this country is to better our lives for our families, but we should be treated with dignity like any other employees,” Torres added. “That’s why I came here to speak today, to ask the community to not be quiet. We need to speak up in order for things to change.”
On the construction worksite, at least, change appears to be coming.
Lucas Franco, a LIUNA researcher, said Minnesota’s new laws “will, we are confident, break the cycle of unscrupulous contractors and worker mistreatment on publicly funded projects.”
That’s no small slice of the construction industry, either.
An analysis published by NorthStar Policy Action in November 2023 found that $84 million of taxpayer subsidies went to affordable housing developments in Minnesota that used contractors tied to proven or alleged exploitation of workers. And that’s “just the tip of the iceberg,” author Jake Schwitzer said, noting that the Callisto Commons project was not named in the report.
“We’re here today because we know Minnesota can meet its affordable housing needs and development goals without sacrificing worker dignity and safety,” Franco said.
– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor
Union Advocate 