Carpenters union’s tip leads to felony wage-theft charges

September 22, 2025 by

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi announced charges of wage theft, insurance fraud and tax evasion stemming from work on a public housing site in St. Paul. (photo courtesy Vince Muzik, FCF Minnesota)

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi and law-enforcement leaders credited the local Carpenters union with playing a key role in their investigation of wage-theft allegations on a public housing site in St. Paul, which resulted in criminal charges filed Sept. 3.

Choi’s office charged Jose Herrera, Carrie Gutbrod-Herrera and Joseph Herrera, owners of Bayvista Incorporated, with multiple counts of wage theft, insurance fraud and tax evasion stemming from their firm’s work at the McDonough Homes in 2024. All three owners face felony charges.

According to the criminal complaint, Bayvista procured a contract to provide labor for roofing and gutter improvements at the North End apartment complex, owned by the St. Paul Public Housing Agency, but the company cheated its workers out of over $200,000 in combined wages for their work.

Rather than paying prevailing wages of about $68 per hour for roofers and $84 for gutter installation, as required on the publicly funded project, Bayvista allegedly paid workers between $120 to $200 per day in cash.

Multiple workers told St. Paul Police investigators that “they had been instructed to falsely tell anyone who asks that they were, in fact, being paid at prevailing-wage rates,” according to the complaint.

Seven workers agreed to participate in the investigation, but Choi told members of the media during a press conference that he hopes to win full compensation for 24 victims in all, adding that the investigation is ongoing.

“We can’t hold people accountable if someone doesn’t raise their hand,” Choi said. “Somebody has to say, ‘This happened to me.’

“Thankfully we have a lot of advocates. Unions are very laser-focused on making sure that workers’ rights are upheld in this town. They’re helping us make those reports, but we have to corroborate that.”

A tip from the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters (NCSRCC) sparked the investigation of wage theft on the McDonough Homes project.

The NCSRCC is among several local labor organizations with staff dedicated to monitoring conditions on construction sites across their jurisdictions. Carpenters business representative Woodrow Piner, who attended the press conference, said the council is now tracking about 1,400 projects – active or in the planning stages – in the seven-county metro area.

Piner and other union representatives developed a relationship with several Bayvista workers after an initial visit to McDonough Homes last year. Eventually, he said, workers disclosed that their wages were not meeting the legal standard.

“We knew it was a prevailing wage job, and when you see a group like this, typically they’re not being paid the proper wage,” Piner said, adding that it took time to gain workers’ trust.

“In a world like this, where you could possibly have compromised documentation, you’re terrified to even say what your favorite candy bar is. It takes a lot to develop that relationship.”

Rarely do those conversations at the job site lead to criminal charges, but they often do empower workers with the information they need to protect themselves from wage theft or misclassification, NCSRCC’s Dominic Andrist added.

“Union or nonunion, we’re just trying to uphold the rights of working men and women, to make sure that when they’re out there and it’s 20 below, they’re getting their just due and the pay that they deserve,” he said.

That’s a point St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry echoed during the press conference.

“I think some people think that those folks are just looking out for their membership,” Henry said of local Building Trades unions. “They are not. They are looking out for what’s fair and what’s right out in their community.”

The investigation ultimately expanded from wage theft to charges of tax evasion and insurance fraud, as a newly formed Labor Advisory Council tapped into the Bayvista owners’ payroll records, tax returns and insurance policies. Spearheaded by Choi’s office, the working group brings together law-enforcement agencies, state regulators and worker-advocacy groups.

Mike Wilde, director of the Fair Contracting Foundation of Minnesota, a prevailing-wage watchdog, credited the Labor Advisory Council with helping Minnesota lead the country in “stamping out corrupt practices in our industry.”

“Our public infrastructure must be built first on integrity,” Wilde added. “It’s expected by taxpayers, the lawful contractors who bid on this work and the construction workers who actually build it for us all.”

Choi urged anyone who believes that they have witnessed or experienced wage theft to call 651-266-3371.

– Michael Moore, UA editor

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Bloomington workers say banjo maker wants to bust their union by moving to Oregon

February 15, 2024 by

Nechville Musical Products workers and their supporters picketed Feb. 15, a day after their boss changed the locks at the Bloomington shop.

Craftsmen who make banjos for Nechville Musical Products in Bloomington are on the picket line today after their boss asked them to load a U-Haul with tools and materials that he plans to relocate to Oregon, leaving local employees out of work.

The move comes less than a month after Nechville’s six workers – five full-time and one part-time – announced they had formed a union with the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters.

Union members called the relocation plan retaliatory, saying ownership gave them no indication that it intended to move until Jan. 16, when they requested recognition of their union. In fact, they say owner Tom Nechville engaged with them in a robust annual planning session just one week earlier.

“The meeting before we told him about the union was a meeting about the goals for 2024 and how to organize ordering so that the finances would be in line,” John Potts, who has worked for Nechville the last five years, said. “Our goal for the year was going to be 180 banjos.”

Potts showed up to the Bloomington facility yesterday and turned over his keys to Nechville, who had already changed the locks. He and other workers were left wondering if they had been locked out of their jobs or laid off permanently.

“It’s not necessarily a lockout, but it is a situation I’m working on right now,” Nechville said when reached by phone yesterday at the Bloomington shop. He refused further comment and then ended the call.

Union members picketed Nechville Musical Products, located at 9700 Humboldt Ave. S., this morning. About a dozen community and labor supporters joined them on the line.

The Carpenters union filed charges of unfair labor practices against Nechville earlier this month. More are likely coming. Threats to close a facility or lay off workers if they form a union are considered forms of retaliation under federal labor law.

What’s more, the Carpenters contend that Nechville voluntarily recognized the union and has been illegally refusing to bargain since announcing plans to relocate. Workers said the owner granted recognition in messages about the timing of the Bloomington facility’s closure, which he changed from the end of February to this Friday.

“It’s all gone so chaotic,” Nechville worker Gareth Bly, who crafts banjo fretwork and neck shaping, said. “It’s difficult for any of us to parse what (Nechville’s) motivation is. Why does he think that we’re doing this, and what’s so bad about it?”

Bly and Potts said workers’ main goal in forming their union was making their careers more sustainable. Potts described most workers’ job descriptions as “nebulous,” and he attributed recent turnover in the shop to “some sort of falling out with Tom over control issues.”

Additionally, Nechville workers do not receive paid time off, paid holidays or health benefits. They only began earning paid sick time after Bloomington passed a municipal ordinance establishing the labor standard.

Bly said he first considered the idea of forming a union before his first Thanksgiving on staff, when he realized celebrating the holiday would take money off his paycheck. Nechville, according to Bly, later clawed back sick time that he and other workers had been told they’d earned before Bloomington’s ordinance took effect.

“That’s when we started saying this can’t stand,” he said.

Any hopes that Nechville would approach the union in a collaborative spirit – or share their enthusiasm for putting a union label on the brand’s banjos – have evaporated over the last month, leaving workers both disillusioned and worried about their economic security.

Potts, the kind of worker who Bly described as someone who “put himself out there for every single dirty job that had to get done,” said he “oscillates between being extremely sad and extremely angry.”

“I love my job,” Potts said. “I’ve had a great time in the past with Tom, hanging out at bluegrass festivals, taking various trips with him. Ultimately, I want Tom to be doing well. So it’s really sad to see him kind of dismiss our value and assume that we’re trying to hurt him.”

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

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Construction wage theft back on MN lawmakers’ agenda

March 17, 2023 by

Alvaro Chavez (L), a member of CTUL, testifies in support of the Construction Worker Wage Protection Act, authored by Rep. Sandra Feist (R).

Construction firms in Minnesota would bear greater legal responsibility for the labor practices of their subcontractors under legislation introduced by DFL lawmakers last month.

Building Trades unions and worker advocacy groups say the measure is necessary in the wake of reported abuses on non-union construction sites, most notably the Viking Lakes development in Eagan, where last year 40-plus workers alleged being cheated out of over $100,000 in combined wages.

Under the proposed Construction Worker Wage Protection Act, tradespeople hired by a subcontractor or labor broker would be empowered to seek unpaid wages from the larger contractors responsible for bringing their boss onto the jobsite.

Advocates say holding so-called “upstream” contractors accountable will create a much-needed incentive to do business with responsible subcontractors. The measure would also give construction firms legal authority to request payroll information from their subcontractors, so they can avoid liability.

“Compliance would finally be incentivized,” the Carpenters union’s Adam Duininck told members of the House Labor Committee during a hearing on the bill March 2.

Minnesota Building Trades unions lobbied to pass the nation’s strongest wage theft legislation four years ago, but Duininck and other labor leaders say the new law has not deterred developers and general contractors, like the Wilf family’s MV Ventures, from turning a blind eye to wage theft on their projects.

A report approved by Ramsey and Hennepin county attorneys last year found “rampant wage theft” in the non-union construction industry, estimating that employers in those two counties steal over $3 million in wages each year and divert over $11 million from Social Security and Medicare funds by misclassifying employees as independent contractors or paying in cash.

During the committee hearing March 2, Alvaro Chavez, with assistance from a Spanish language interpreter, explained to lawmakers how he witnessed the wage-theft model firsthand. After working for several weeks framing the bottom floor of a multifamily development in St. Paul, Chavez said, he and his crew abruptly learned they were being replaced for the project’s next phase.

“They never paid us for the work we had already done,” Chavez said. “When the supervisor of our group called the owner of the company, Strong Framing, who was a subcontractor on this project, he wouldn’t answer the phone.”

Chavez and other members of the crew approached the local worker center CTUL for assistance recovering their lost wages. Their first call was to the project’s developer, Yellow Tree.

“They told us they had contracted with U.S. Framing to do the work and we should call them,” Chavez said. “When we called U.S. Framing, they told us they contracted with Strong Framing, the company of the person who was no longer taking our calls.

“None of these companies wanted to take responsibility for paying our wages.”

Dan McConnell, president of the Minnesota State Building and Construction Trades Council, said that responsibility rightly belongs to those with most control over the construction site. “Managing a project and making sure everybody gets paid is literally what owners pay a general contractor to do,” he said.

But too often, by the time workers like Chavez discover they have been cheated out of their wages, it’s too late to hold their immediate employer accountable, Simon Trautmann, a labor attorney and member of the Richfield City Council, told lawmakers.

“You’ll have the subcontractor who has an LLC with zero assets,” Trautmann said. “That creates a policy problem where there is literally no money and literally nobody (to hold) accountable. This is a business model.”

Members of the House Labor Committee voted to advance the measure, House File 1859. Its companion bill, Senate File 1988, has so far passed through two committees.

“The bottom line is if you control the worksite, then you can prevent wage theft,” said Rep. Sandra Feist (D-New Brighton), the bill’s lead author in the House. “We want to level the playing field so ethical business practices can win the day, and they’re not going to be underbid by unethical subcontractors.”

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Senate Republicans block $1.9 billion infrastructure jobs proposal

March 16, 2023 by

IUPAT members (L to R) Tadd Tratar, David Kroger, Jordan Fry and Zach Thoemke rallied for the bonding will with Tim Stender (R) from the Carpenters union.

Before the Minnesota Senate voted today on infrastructure jobs bills worth $1.9 billion, union tradespeople pleaded with Republican members not to hold up the package of local public-works projects as leverage in a political fight with the DFL majority.

“Quit playing little games with my livelihood,” Carpenters Local 1382 member Mandy Reese, from Zumbrota, told lawmakers. “Do your jobs, get back to work and get this bonding bill passed today.”

Unfortunately for Reese and nearly 100 other union members who gathered outside the Senate chambers, most Republicans chose politics over jobs. The bonding proposal, which would see the state borrow $1.5 billion for infrastructure projects, fell shy of the three-fifths majority needed to pass the Senate, despite gaining bipartisan support in the House earlier this month.

The result prompted DFL leaders to scrap plans for a vote on a separate package of infrastructure projects that would be paid for with nearly $400 million from the state’s projected budget surplus.

Sen. Sandy Pappas (D-St. Paul), chair of the Senate Capital Investment Committee, said during a press conference before the vote that if the borrowing bill failed, DFLers in both chambers would begin crafting a new all-cash package, which they could pass with simple majorities.

But that bill is unlikely to be as robust as the two bills they had hoped to approve today, Pappas warned. And because it won’t need a three-fifths margin, the cash bill may also not be as inclusive of Republican spending proposals.

LIUNA Local 563 member Carolyn Wood of Rosemount spoke in support of the $1.9 billion local jobs and projects bills. “By creating good construction jobs, thousands of Minnesotans will gain access to the Trades and a better future like I did, including our young people, more women, people of color and veterans,” she said.

Pappas called the proposal rejected by Republicans today “the fairest and the largest” bonding bill in state history. She touted a 50-50 split between projects funded in metro and rural areas, and singled out proposed transportation, water-treatment and public-safety projects in GOP-represented districts.

“Frankly, it’s embarrassing for me to go back to these communities time after time, year after year, and they’re still waiting” for lawmakers to fund local capital projects, Pappas said.

As for an all-cash bill, she added, “I don’t know if it can be as balanced” as the borrowing proposal.

On the Senate floor, Minority Leader Mark Johnson (R-East Grand Forks) recognized the strong support from organized labor for the infrastructure jobs bill, calling out several unions by name. But he said support from Republican leaders hinged on inclusion of tax relief.

“We wanted to help you,” Johnson said. “We Republicans wanted to get these projects done in the state of Minnesota. We have one simple request. Let’s get this done, but let’s ensure Minnesotans are taken care of as well, make sure that they have tax relief, make sure that we know what’s happening in our fiscal policy.”

The construction season is approaching quickly, and Minnesota’s asset upkeep falls further behind schedule – and costs continue to increase – each time lawmakers fail to act on a bonding bill, as they have since October 2020.

“We shouldn’t be talking about these projects,” said Bradley Peterson, director of the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities. “We should be talking about the next round of projects.”

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Alleged rape on Wilfs’ Viking Lakes development sparks outrage, calls for change

October 14, 2022 by

Barb Pecks (R), chair of the Carpenters union’s Sisters in the Brotherhood group, embraces Norma Izaguirre during a press conference on the Capitol steps.

A worker on the Viking Lakes project in Eagan came forward last week with allegations that she was raped and harassed while working for a drywall subcontractor on the troubled job site, developed by NFL owners Zygmunt, Mark and Leonard Wilf’s MV Ventures firm.

Unions and worker advocacy groups decried the alleged assault and, in a press conference on the Capitol steps Tuesday, issued an impassioned call for elected officials, developers, contractors and all workers to do more to stop exploitation of workers in the construction industry.

For developers like the Wilfs, that means cutting business ties with contractors that have public records of wage theft, worker misclassification and other labor abuses.

Absolute Drywall, which employed Norma Izaguirre and her alleged rapist, Diego Medina, has been cited for child labor, misclassification of workers and failure to pay overtime. The state Labor Department also found that the firm submitted false and misleading claims in response to an investigation.

Yet when representatives of the Carpenters union and the local worker center CTUL tried to warn MV Ventures about Absolute Drywall’s track record of exploitation, they were instructed to leave the property, CTUL Co-Director Veronica Mendez Moore said.

“They kicked us off the site and wouldn’t even let us go in and talk with workers, to see what the conditions were like,” she said. “They said to us that they could handle this themselves.”

By last spring, more than 40 workers employed on the Viking Lakes project had come forward to report wage theft, alleging Absolute and other subcontractors had cheated them out of over $100,000 in combined wages. Several workers reported their claims to the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry.

Madeline Lohman, a senior researcher for The Advocates for Human Rights, said developers that turn a blind eye to subcontractors’ potential violations of wage rules, safety standards and other worker protections too often foster an “environment of impunity,” ripe for more serious abuses.

“Many of the labor trafficking victims that we have served at The Advocates first came forward because of stolen wages, untreated workplace injuries or child labor that had been overlooked, and only afterwards was the trafficking uncovered,” she said. “If developers and large employers … allow smaller abuses to go unchecked, greater ones will flourish in those gaps.”

In fact, Izaguirre told the Minnesota Reformer website that she is among the workers on the Viking Lakes development who have filed complaints of unpaid wages.

She said Medina lured her to work for Absolute Drywall as a cleaner at Viking Lakes and other developments. After several months, he began making sexual advances and touching her inappropriately, eventually raping her in one of the apartments’ showers, according to her report.

Medina threatened violence against Izaguirre and her family if she reported the abuse. But on the Capitol steps, she stood up to the podium and explained what prompted her to come forward.

“I want everyone in the state of Minnesota to make sure no other woman is treated like I was on a construction project,” she said through an interpreter. “My question for Minnesota developers and construction companies is this: what are you going to do to prevent this from happening to another woman?”

One option for developers is to hire union contractors, whose employees can report abuses to their representatives and whose wages and benefits are spelled out in a collective bargaining agreement.

Or, Mendez Moore said, developers should sign a pledge with the Building Dignity and Respect Standards Council, requiring all contractors on their developments to uphold basic labor standards and agreeing to allow independent monitoring – with legally binding enforcement mechanisms – on their work sites. CTUL is ramping up public pressure on several prominent non-union developers to join the council.

Local elected officials, meanwhile, should require accountability measures on all approved projects to ensure workers are not being exploited in their cities, union officials said.

“If one of the most powerful families in Minnesota is not stepping up to prevent horrific worker abuse, it’s time for local governments and the state Legislature to step in,” said Adam Duininck, director of government affairs with the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters (NCSRCC).

Construction workers – union and non-union – have an important role to play, too, said Barb Pecks, a business representative with the NCSRCC and chair of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters’ Sisters in the Brotherhood committee. She said the union would soon begin working with its contractors to train all members in identifying and reporting labor abuses.

“I can’t say enough about your bravery and courage,” Pecks told Izaguirre on the Capitol steps.

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Dems’ climate measure ties tax credits to prevailing wage, apprenticeship

September 22, 2022 by

Matt Campanario, executive director of the Carpenters Training Institute, leads Sen. Tina Smith on a tour of the LJ Shosten Training Center in St. Paul, which houses the union’s pile driver and millwright apprenticeship programs.

The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden in August, promises the most aggressive action to combat climate change in U.S. history, a $369 billion investment that aims to reduce carbon emissions by 40% this decade.

But what most excites some union leaders about the IRA are long-sought provisions that will ensure the transition to a cleaner-energy economy creates and sustains union jobs – and taps into the job-training capacity of unions’ registered apprenticeship programs.

In a win for Building Trades unions, businesses looking to claim tax credits available under the IRA must commit to paying prevailing wages and employing a minimum number of registered apprentices on their jobsites.

The requirements apply to most tax credits that were greatly expanded by the historic legislation, which Democratic majorities spent months shepherding through Congress.

The tax credits will spark private-sector construction of energy-efficient commercial buildings, housing and electric vehicle charging stations, as well as investments in energy sources outside of fossil fuels.

An analysis released by the University of Massachusetts at Amherst projects the IRA’s climate and energy investments will create 9 million jobs over the next decade.

By insisting on strong labor provisions, said Adam Duininck, director of government affairs for the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters, Biden and other lawmakers ensured those investments will create good-paying jobs for skilled American workers.

“The expanded tax credits included in the Inflation Reduction Act will benefit businesses that pay prevailing wages and hire our apprentices,” Duininck said. “Paying workers prevailing wages will further support our communities where workers live and spend their money. This will give local businesses and our public services like education, public safety and well-maintained infrastructure the financial backing they should be receiving from hard working, middle-class workers.

“Our communities miss out on billions of tax dollars by unethical business practices of dishonest contractors. It is great to see support for those who conduct business in a manner that benefits people rather than lining the pockets of only a few individuals.”

Carpenters apprentice Amanda Heiser tells Smith recently passed infrastructure and climate bills “definitely provide a more stable future” for apprentices like her.

The IRA also includes penalties for firms that pledge to pay prevailing wages but don’t follow through, requiring them to make workers whole – plus interest.

Meanwhile, industrial unions hailed domestic content requirements included in the IRA, which will encourage the use of American-made batteries, solar and wind components and other technologies on clean energy projects.

The requirements will stimulate job growth in the U.S. manufacturing sector, said Jason Walsh, director of the BlueGreen Alliance, which brings together unions and environmental groups.

“Few pieces of legislation this century have come close to such sweeping job creation potential,” Walsh said. “This bill’s investments offer an opportunity to support and create good union jobs and for workers and communities to reap the economic gains of the clean economy.”

For the Biden administration, the IRA delivers – again – on a campaign promise to make union jobs the focus of its economic policy.

A $1 trillion infrastructure law, which Biden signed in November 2021, is already creating work for union tradespeople in Minnesota. Over 100 projects statewide have tapped into $1.4 billion in federal funding available through the bill so far, including a $22 million project at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

Prevailing-wage rates are set by the federal government and vary by location. The rates reflect the average wage paid to similarly employed workers in a specific occupation in that area.

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Women Building Success celebrates tradeswomen at awards ceremony

June 3, 2022 by

WBS award winners, L to R, include (back) Claire Boeke, Karin Dahlin, Dani Moss, Rosey Grab, (front) Marissa Goodsky, Brittney Bray and Robin Chuhel.

Union tradeswomen and labor leaders gathered June 1 in White Bear Lake for the Women Building Success Awards, a celebration of local apprentices, journey workers and advocates for women pursuing careers in the construction trades.

Women Building Success (WBS) is a Minnesota organization founded in 2017 to recognize and promote the achievements of women in union construction trades. The awards ceremony is among its biggest events of the year, said Barb Pecks, a WBS board member and member of the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters.

“We do have amazing women out there, and we definitely don’t recognize them often enough,” said Pecks, who emceed the ceremony.

In a recorded video, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar congratulated the 44 women nominated for WBS awards, and she praised WBS and local construction unions for their ongoing efforts to support tradeswomen and make the unionized construction industry a more welcoming place for women to work.

“When our tradeswomen succeed, our economy succeeds,” Klobuchar said. “And when our economy succeeds, America succeeds.”

WBS board members honor Terri Stave with a Lifetime Achievement award. Pictured (L to R) are Barry Davies, Carrie Robles, Barb Pecks, Stave, Jenny Winkelaar and Jennifer Mudge.

Lifetime Achievement

WBS presented a Lifetime Achievement award to Terri Stave, a retired member, instructor and officer with Elevator Constructors Local 9 who serves on the WBS Board of Directors.

Throughout her career, Stave was a trailblazer both within Local 9 and the International Union of Elevator Constructors (IUEC). In 2016, she became the first woman sworn in as business agent of an IUEC local, and she was one of two women who attended the union’s international convention that year. She recently became the first female member to retire out of Local 9.

“When I started as a 19-year-old, and I just went to work, kept my head down and went home,” Stave said. But after attending the Tradeswomen Build Nations conference in 2014 and finding only four other elevator constructors, she said, “I decided we’ve got to do something about this.”

Stave started a Facebook group for women in the IUEC, which has grown to nearly 300 members and provides support and connections to organizations like Tradeswomen Build Nations.

IBEW 110 Business Manager Jamie McNamara introduces Advocate of the Year Robin Chuhel (L).

Advocate of the Year

Robin Chuhel of St. Paul-based Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 110 received the Advocate of the Year award, with honorable mention going to Rosey Grab, an apprentice with Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 49.

Chuhel, an Air Force veteran, joined Local 110 in 1994, and she is a union steward in her current job with the St. Paul Public Schools, “a place for her to recruit, train and help retain as many women in our field as possible,” Local 110 Business Manager Jamie McNamara said.

Chuhel also has served nearly 20 years in a leadership role with the union’s apprenticeship program, often advocating for better pay and benefits for apprentices, McNamara said.

“When Robin would engage apprentices who were women, she would take them under her wing, advising, protecting and teaching the apprentices like they were her own family,” McNamara said. “She has not only taught the women in our local how to be better in our industry, she has taught the whole industry how to be better for women.”

Journey Workers of the Year Marissa Goodsky holds her award during a photo with Local 633 Business Manager Dave Schutta and her sister Alexa.

Journey Worker of the Year

Marissa Goodsky, a member of Cement Masons Local 633, received Journey Worker of the Year honors, with honorable mention going to Brittney Bray of IUOE Local 49.

Goodsky is a graduate of Local 633’s summer training program, offered in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Transportation since 2010, that introduces young workers from area tribal nations to careers in the concrete and cement industry.

Goodsky “stood out in that program with her energy and attention to detail,” Local 633 Business Manager Dave Schutta said, and in 2015 she began an apprenticeship with the local. Now, she serves as an instructor in the very program that introduced her to the union.

“She’s come full circle,” Schutta said. “What a mentor she’s going to be.”

Apprentice of the Year

Karin Dahlin of Minneapolis St. Cloud Pipefitters Local 539 was named Apprentice of the Year. The overwhelming number of outstanding apprentices nominated for the award prompted WBS to name two honorable mention winners: Dani Moss of Laborers (LIUNA) Local 563 and Claire Boeke of the Carpenters.

In addition to the award, winners in each category received a $300 honorarium and a set of Milwaukee tools. Honorable mention recipients received $100 honorariums.

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Wilfs’ company turned deaf ear to warnings of wage theft at Viking Lakes development

May 10, 2022 by

Abel Susteito speaks at a Capitol press conference about his experience with wage theft on the Viking Lakes apartment project in Eagan.

Tradespeople who worked on the Viking Lakes luxury apartments in Eagan went public last week with accusations of wage theft on the project, owned and developed by the same family that owns the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings.

Worker advocacy groups, including the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters (NCSRCC), pinned responsibility for the alleged labor abuses on the Wilfs, whose company, MV Ventures, ignored the groups’ repeated warnings that subcontractors awarded work on the project had a track record of labor violations and dishonesty.

“MV Ventures is a Wilf-family company. MV Ventures develops the project, hires the subcontractors and has control of the project from start to finish,” Carpenters General Council Burt Johnson said. “They are responsible.”

The union said it has heard from more than 40 workers on the Viking Lakes project who said they were not paid what they were owed, and two workers at a Capitol press conference May 5 confirmed reporting the wage theft to Minnesota’s Department of Labor and Industry.

But any civil or criminal penalties resulting from an investigation are likely to fall on the subcontractors, prompting calls from community leaders for the Wilfs and MV Ventures to do the right thing now.

Veronica Mendez Moore, co-director of the Twin Cities-based worker center CTUL, said MV Ventures should meet with unions to resolve the allegations stemming from Viking Lakes, and sign a pledge with the Building Dignity and Respect Standards Council requiring all contractors on its developments to uphold basic labor standards.

Javier Mendez Velasco speaks to reporters about his experience installing siding at the Viking Lakes apartments.

Mendez Moore also noted the Wilfs benefited from nearly half a billion dollars in public subsidies to build the Vikings’ new stadium in Minneapolis.

“This is a family that needs to be held to a higher standard,” she said. “They need to partner with the community to better ensure standards for all of the people in our city.”

‘Constantly tired’

Despite working for different subcontractors, Javier Mendez Velasco and Abel Susteito described similar labor standards on the 261-unit, luxury apartment project at Viking Lakes. Both said they were paid wages lower than what they were initially promised, with no overtime or holiday pay and no vacation or health insurance benefits.

That was a standard arrangement, Mendez Velasco said, at subcontractors like Advantage Construction and Property Maintenance and Construction (PMC), which employed him to do siding work on the Wilf family’s Eagan development site. In over three years with Advantage and PMC, Mendez Velasco said he never received overtime pay, despite working six or seven days per week, sometimes from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.

“We were constantly tired, but our boss wasn’t understanding,” Mendez Velasco said through a Spanish-language interpreter. “He would never help us out.”

Susteito hung drywall at Viking Lakes from November 2020 to August 2021 as an employee of Absolute Drywall, a company local unions have been calling out for several years, pointing to past citations for child labor, misclassification of workers and failure to pay overtime. The state Labor Department also found that Absolute Drywall submitted false and misleading claims in response to an investigation.

“I want to ask the Department of Labor to keep fighting for our rights, and for better pay for us,” Susteito said at the press conference.

Carpenters union official Adam Duininck says he and others suggested ways the Wilfs’ company could prevent wage theft on the Viking Lakes project. “Our suggestions just were not taken seriously,” he said.

Profit before public interest

Advocates for construction workers say exploitation is baked into the industry’s business model, with layers of contractors, subcontractors and labor brokers that insulate developers like the Wilfs from responsibility for working conditions and standards on their projects.

Immigrant workers are particularly vulnerable.

“We came here to work, and we have our own dreams. But we were taken advantage of,” Mendez Velasco said. “As immigrant workers we are taken advantage of for our hard work, for our dedication, but also because we don’t have the knowledge and the available resources.”

Union representatives warned the Wilfs’ development company, MV Ventures, about their subcontractors’ checkered background “ad nauseam,” according to Adam Duininck, NCSRCC’s director of government affairs. He said the union also urged the developer to be proactive in preventing wage theft.

“We suggested a number of ways to get ahead of wage theft, including jobsite monitoring and working with outside groups to monitor payroll,” Duininck said. “Our suggestions just were not taken seriously.”

As a result, workers like Susteito, Mendez Velasco and dozens of others are still waiting to be made whole for their work building luxury apartments that are now renting at prices between $1,600 and $2,245 per month.

“These workers take great risk when they come forward and talk to the public about what’s going on,” Johnson said. “We need to believe them.”

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Union carpenters spotlight tax fraud in construction industry

April 14, 2022 by

Members of the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters demonstrate outside a development site in northeast Minneapolis.

Union carpenters across the Midwest this week are calling out contractors who commit payroll fraud to gain an unfair leg up in bidding on construction jobs, a practice that drains $136 million from state coffers each year in Minnesota alone, according to one recent study.

In northeast Minneapolis Wednesday, members of the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters picketed a residential construction site, taking aim at Wisconsin-based Painting America Inc., a contractor on the project, for undermining area wage and benefit standards.

Painting America has faced charges from the Minnesota Department of Labor Industry for illegally misclassifying employees as independent contractors, and union representative Woodrow Piner said former employees have reached out to the Carpenters for help recovering lost wages.

“At some point workers get frustrated by how they’re being treated and look for a change, and they find their way to our office,” said Piner, the NCSRCC’s director for central and southern Minnesota.

“A number of workers from Painting America Inc. have reported being paid off the books, not having withholdings or taxes held off their checks, and not being paid overtime after 40 hours,” Piner said. “And these were workers directly under the supervision of Painting America.”

Contractors who follow the law and pay workers fairly struggle to compete on cost with unscrupulous bidders, driving down standards in the industry. Piner said the practice is most prevalent on multifamily, wood-frame construction sites.

But construction workers aren’t the only ones hurt by employee misclassification and other forms of payroll fraud. It costs taxpayers, too.

In a study issued in January 2021, researchers from the Midwest Economic Policy Institute found Minnesota loses $136 million in state revenues annually due to construction payroll fraud, including $65 million in lost income-tax revenue. Nationally, tax fraud in the construction industry costs the public $8.4 billion per year, according to the Carpenters Union.

“That means hardworking taxpayers are picking up the slack,” Piner said.

Construction payroll fraud also drains $13 million from the state’s unemployment insurance fund and $58 million from the workers’ compensation pool, according to the report. Adding insult to injury, workers misclassified as independent contractors or paid off the books are not eligible to access those funds if they are laid off or injured on the job.

Although payroll fraud persists in Minnesota, the state’s new wage theft law – touted by supporters as the strongest in the nation when it passed in May 2019 – gives state regulators new tools and more resources to crack down on the practice. County attorneys in the metro are increasing their attention on wage theft, too.

That’s good reason, for carpenters on the picket line in northeast Minneapolis, to keep shining a spotlight on the multifamily, wood-frame construction industry.

“We’re looking for elected officials, developers and contractors to pay more attention, to be accountable for what is happening on these projects,” Piner said. “Not only does it hurt the taxpayer, it’s about the dignity of workers.”

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Report: Union construction sites draw fewer safety violations

December 13, 2021 by

A new analysis of Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) inspections at construction jobsites in nine midwestern states backs up what unionized tradespeople have long been saying.

Union jobsites are safer jobsites.

The report, released Nov. 30 by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute (ILEPI) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Project for Middle Class Renewal, found that unionized construction workers were exposed to 34% fewer health and safety violations in 2019 than their nonunion counterparts.

“With our nation readying at least $1.2 trillion in new infrastructure investments, it is vital to understand safety trends in construction because it is one of our economy’s most physically demanding and dangerous occupations,” study co-author Frank Manzo IV, director of the ILEPI, said. “The data makes clear that the unionized side of the construction industry is producing vastly superior outcomes.”

In Minnesota, OSHA inspectors found 40% fewer violations per inspection on union worksites than they did on nonunion sites in 2019. Violations turned up, on average, 5% less frequently on union sites.

The union advantage

Local union leaders said the study points to an often-overlooked advantage of their construction model. Union members have a voice over their working conditions and, when they need to speak up about unsafe conditions, the protections of a union contract.

“When you walk on a union jobsite you know that safety is not just a buzzword or toolbox talk,” said Chris Peltier, a business agent for LIUNA Local 563. “We can have confidence knowing that every contractor on site has provided all of their employees with the best resources in the industry and quality training. We know that every worker on the jobsite shares the same culture and has the same goal – that every worker returns home to their families safe and sound at the end of the day.”

Adam Duininck, director of government affairs for the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters, said construction unions “make it a priority to work together with our contractors, developers and members to prevent workplace injuries and ensure members return home safely to their families at the end of each workday.”

Safety is a cornerstone of union training programs, too. Unions and their signatory contractors partner to sponsor, develop and administer world-class apprenticeship programs in Minnesota and across North America.

“We start by providing new apprentices with OSHA training and continue to provide more advanced safety education throughout our members’ careers,” Duininck said.

A public cost of unsafe sites

In conducting their analysis, researchers examined data on more than 37,000 OSHA inspections conducted in 2019. They found that union jobsites were 19% less likely to have any health and safety violations. The number of violations per inspection was 34% lower on union jobsites.

Robert Bruno, a professor at the University of Illinois and co-author of the study, said the lax health and safety practices more prevalent on nonunion construction sites put workers at risk and increase strain on the workers’ compensation system.

“Construction worksites with OSHA violations are more likely to suffer workplace injuries, which can impose billions of dollars per year in added burdens on businesses and state workers’ compensation systems,” Bruno said. “Employers that take preventative and proactive steps to lower the risk of injuries and illnesses experience greater levels of output on the jobsite, and ultimately save money for both themselves and taxpayers.”

Attack unions, undermine safety

The difference between violation rates on union and nonunion jobsites was notably greater in Michigan (49%), Wisconsin (59%) and Indiana (64%), states where Republican lawmakers have repealed prevailing wage and passed right-to-work laws in recent years.

Prevailing-wage laws require employees working on state-funded projects to be paid wage rates comparable to those paid for similar work in the region. With a prevailing wage built into all bids, contractors bidding for public projects compete on skill, productivity and other factors – not on who can scrape together the cheapest workforce.

“A safe workplace is filled with workers and an employer that puts safety before profits, something we rarely see on nonunion worksites,” said Duininck.

The report makes clear, authors said, that measures to weaken unions and their collective bargaining power come at a potentially steep cost.

“Safety problems are not just a threat to the health of the construction workforce our nation needs right now, they impose real burdens that hurt productivity, shrink output and increase costs,” Bruno said. “The data is very clear: embracing the institutions that correlate with better safety outcomes in physically demanding occupations can be a win-win-win for workers, businesses, and taxpayers alike.”

Apprenticeship is key

To promote safer construction worksites across the country, the researchers suggest that policymakers seek to promote institutionalized training and high safety standards with prevailing wage laws, responsible bidder ordinances, project labor agreements and the repeal of so-called “right-to-work” laws, which have been linked to weaker apprenticeship systems in previous research.

“Registered apprenticeships aren’t just attaching workers to middle-class construction careers, they are training workers in industrywide best practices for operating heavy machinery, working with hazardous materials, and avoiding preventable accidents on the jobsite,” Manzo added. “There is no doubt that this work isn’t just paying off from the standpoint of reducing fatalities, but also from the standpoint of preventing the very health and safety violations cause these tragedies.”

Matt Johnson, a senior instructor at the Laborers’ Training Center in Lino Lakes, said workers who make the jump from non-union firms to his union apprenticeship program often tell him they wish they would have had his safety training when they worked non-union.

“I love being able to pass on the knowledge that I have learned over the course of my years working and help others prevent mistakes that I myself have made,” said Johnson, who worked in the field as a construction Laborer for nearly 18 years before going to work as an instructor.

“Unfortunately there’s a misconception for a lot of owners that safety training costs more money than it is worth,” Johnson added. “I see it differently. Work injuries not only cause bodily harm, they also cost money, and we can help prevent that with good training.”

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