Detained Guild member’s son attends SOTU as Omar’s guest

February 27, 2026 by

Union member Eustaquio Orozco Verdusco with his godsons. (submitted photo)

The Trump administration’s chaotic, violent surge of immigration-enforcement activity in Minnesota this winter has upended thousands of lives, Gerardo Orozco Guzman’s among them.

But Guzman, 27, had a rare opportunity to bear witness to that devastation when President Trump delivered his State of the Union address Feb. 24, as one of four guests – all impacted by Operation Metro Surge – invited to attend the speech with Rep. Ilhan Omar.

Guzman’s father, Eustaquio Orozco Verdusco, was abducted on his way to work Jan. 9, and he remained in federal detention at press time. Verdusco is an organizer with the worker center CTUL, Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha, and a member of the Minnesota Newspaper and Communications Guild.

For Guzman, attending the State of the Union was an opportunity to bring “light and awareness” to what’s happening both to his family and to his community.

“It is extremely unfair that my dad was taken by the government,” he said. “It’s unfair that our family is having to go through this. It’s unfair that my Minnesota community is having to go through this still.”

Guzman’s father, known to friends and family as “Paco,” has made a career of helping vulnerable workers fight back against abuses in the construction industry.

CTUL is a resource center for workers who experience wage theft, misclassification and labor trafficking, and the organization has a track record of recovering unpaid wages and helping deliver cases to authorities for investigation.

Guzman has built a career as an advocate, too. A legal assistant and mediator for the Minnesota Attorney General’s office, he was named an “Unsung Legal Hero” by Minnesota Lawyer magazine last year.

Guzman, his mother, his sister and his extended family have been scrambling to pursue every legal option possible to get Paco home since his arrest. Lawyers immediately filed a habeas corpus petition for his release, but it was denied by a judge.

After spending weeks in the notoriously dangerous Camp East Montana detention facility, Paco was transferred to a facility in New Mexico, a move that came with greater access to phone calls, Guzman said.

But the family’s concern grows with each day Paco is detained.

“He calls to check in on us and tell us he’s OK, but with every call he does sound more dejected,” Guzman said. “He recognized, I think, that people who he’s met in detention have been there way longer – eight or nine months, if not longer. As time goes on the tone of his voice is not the same, and noticing that change, it’s heartbreaking to say the least.”

Guzman said the family has settled on a multi-pronged legal approach to get Paco home, but costs are adding up. The family launched an online fundraiser, and 6,000 people have signed onto a petition for Paco’s release.

“You want to have faith in the laws and procedures, and at first my dad was hopeful that he would be released, as he should have been,” Guzman said. “We’ve gotten so much support from more people than I know, but if we can get a little more support, get the right kind of support…

“I’ll talk to anyone and everyone. I just want my dad back with us.”

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Restaurant workers call on industry group to ’86 ICE’

February 27, 2026 by

Twin Cities restaurant and hotel workers bring their “86 ICE!” campaign to the offices of Hospitality Minnesota.

Workers in the Twin Cities’ restaurant industry marked the start of Valentine’s Day weekend with a march on the offices Hospitality Minnesota, where they demanded the trade association sign onto a campaign to protect immigrant customers and staff.

Workers at the Feb. 13 rally in downtown Minneapolis said the violent surge of immigration enforcement across the state over the last two months had sent many of their colleagues into hiding – or worse.

The “86 ICE!” campaign, a nod to industry slang for banning someone or something from an establishment, calls for employers and employees to work together on training, planning and surviving the crisis created by increased immigration enforcement.

Demands include refusing service to immigration agents, denying entry to agents unless they have a judicial warrant and training all restaurant employees in how to protect the rights and safety of customers and fellow staff members.

Two local worker centers, CTUL and the Restaurant Opportunities Center of Minnesota, are behind the organizing effort, and several local restaurant owners already have signed on, including Miguel Hernandez, owner of Lito’s Burritos in Richfield.

Signing onto the “86 ICE!” campaign, Hernandez said during the rally, would show that Hospitality Minnesota stands by the business owners who are doing the right thing.

“Most of these demands are already being done by a lot of good community business owners,” Hernandez said during the rally. “Of course, there’s always bad actors, and we need them to stand up for their staff, too.”

Organizers also want restaurants to pledge not to fire or discipline immigrant workers who miss shifts because they fear being harassed or detained.

Remy, a Minneapolis bartender, gives a shout out to his co-workers who were detained during Operation Metro Surge. “Some of them I’ll never see again.”

Operation Metro Surge may be over, but the number of agents, combined, from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection remained about three times greater than previous levels as this issue went to press.

For Patti, an immigrant worker in the hospitality industry who asked not to share her last name, attending the “86 ICE!” rally was the first time she had left her home, aside from going to work when it felt safe, for over a month. She said co-workers helped with groceries and other supplies, and her employer offered flexibility and help getting to work safely.

But not everyone she knows in the industry has been as fortunate. Patti said it wasn’t until after a friend who works as a dishwasher was detained at a bus stop on his way to work that his restaurant began offering rides to vulnerable workers.

It’s a sad example, she said, of why “we need proactive safety plans and trainings at all restaurants.”

Several non-immigrant workers at the rally offered shout-outs to co-workers they worry they will never see again. Hazel, a server whose employer took the “86 ICE!” pledge, said workers in her restaurant were willing to strike to keep their colleagues safe.

“If nothing else, everyone must feel they are safe in their workplace,” she said. “They need to be protected by their employer. But more importantly and more personally, I want to say goodbye to my co-workers after a shift and know they will be there the next day.”

After the rally, a delegation of workers and business owners attempted to meet with a Hospitality Minnesota representative but were told the offices were closed for the day.

CTUL and ROC said supporters of the campaign have sent nearly 2,000 letters to Hospitality Minnesota, but the industry group has denied requests to “discuss a path forward.”.

– Michael Moore, UA editor

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IUPAT’s community outreach led to first criminal wage-theft conviction in Minnesota

April 25, 2025 by

Painters union representative Jordan Fry speaks during a press conference called by the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office after it secured Minnesota’s first criminal wage-theft conviction. (photo by Vince Muzik)

The local Building Trades union whose organizing efforts laid the groundwork for Minnesota’s first criminal wage-theft conviction said the landmark case reflects the tip of the iceberg when it comes to worker abuses in the construction industry.

Frederick Leon Newell, a 59-year-old resident of Lakeville, was convicted April 9 of one count of wage theft and one count of theft by swindle, after a bench trial in January.

The court found that Newell’s firm, Integrated Painting Solutions (IPS), underpaid five workers on a publicly subsidized housing development in Minneapolis by a combined $37,000 for work performed between June 8 and Dec. 4, 2020.

It’s the first conviction under a state law passed in 2019 that recognized wage theft as a criminal offense. The law empowers prosecutors to seek justice for workers who, prior to the change, had to fight for damages in civil court.

At a press conference held by the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office following the conviction, IUPAT District Council 82 representative Jordan Fry said it strikes a blow against the “underground economy that seeks to destroy worker protections.”

“Most times, workers cannot defend themselves – vulnerable workers who can hardly afford to put food on the table, who cannot afford to miss one paycheck,” Fry added. “This wage-theft law serves as a beacon of hope, a law that turns wage theft from a civil-court fantasy into a criminal-court reality.”

Fry’s union, the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) District Council 82, connected Newell’s victims with investigators.

In meetings nearly five years ago, union organizers confirmed the workers’ suspicions that they were being underpaid by IPS on the Redwell apartment complex.

The tactics Newell used to steal wages from his workers are familiar to worker advocates in the construction industry. IPS failed to pay prevailing wage as required by county ordinance on the taxpayer-financed project, and the firm illegally misclassified workers as independent contractors.

“Mr. Newell was entrusted with public funds to pay his staff for their labor on a public works project,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said. “Instead, he siphoned their money for himself.”

Labor advocates said they hope the conviction is another step toward preventing labor abuses, particularly in the multifamily residential construction sector.

“We hope the state continues to pursue and take these cases seriously, and that it sends a message to those who benefit from the system of exploitation that exists in construction – like contractors and developers – that they also have a responsibility to take steps to prevent this from happening on their jobsites,” Brian Merle Payne, executive director of the worker center CTUL, said.

The presumptive sentence for Newell’s wage-theft conviction, according to state guidelines, is a stayed sentence of 21 months. But the court also found that Newell had committed “major economic offenses,” which may lead to a more severe sentence.

Fry said the publicity surrounding the landmark case reaches workers, too, with the message that they have rights – and advocates willing to fight for them.

“But you must come forward to tell your story,” Fry said. “We are here, and we will stand up to fight wage theft and other worker exploitation.

“We will speak out and we will stand with you, and we will not back down because we know an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.”

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

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Workers encouraged to make sure they see full benefit of Minnesota’s new sick time law

January 30, 2024 by

A member of the Twin Cities worker center CTUL spoke about the importance of having access to earned sick and safe time – and why CTUL was among the leading advocates of expanding the benefit statewide.

Minnesota’s new earned sick and safe time mandate took effect Jan. 1, and state lawmakers and regulators are encouraging workers to check with their employers to make sure they are earning the full benefit provided by the new law.

That means banking a minimum of one hour of earned sick and safe time for every 30 hours worked. Accrual must begin immediately upon employment, and workers may earn up to a 48 hours in a year, at minimum.

The new law applies broadly, covering full-time, part-time and temporary employees, although federal workers, independent contractors and some construction workers covered by collective bargaining agreements are exempt from the law.

“We know that everyone deserves paid time away to heal, to grow and to live,” Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan said during a press event at a bakery in Minneapolis, where she and other officials sought to raise awareness of the new mandate. “And when you come back your job should still be there.”

Employers must allow workers to access their earned sick and safe time to recover from illness or injury, access preventative care or care for family members. Workers also may access earned benefits to seek assistance for domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking.

State Sen. Sandy Pappas (D-St. Paul), lead author of the new law, recalled fighting to include earned sick and safe time in the Women’s Economic Security Act of 2014.

Sen. Sandy Pappas of St. Paul was lead author of the ESST bill.

“I couldn’t get it over the goal line at that time, but I was really pleased with my city of St. Paul … that we were the guinea pigs to show that it could work and be successful,” Pappas said. “Now, earned sick and safe time will raise the bar for all Minnesota workers.”

St. Paul was one of four Minnesota cities that put sick-time ordinances on their books before state lawmakers expanded the benefit during the 2023 legislative session. Fourteen other states have passed similar laws too, Department of Labor and Industry Commissioner Nicole Blissenbach said.

“This law is providing an important workplace benefit that allows workers – regardless of their income, regardless of their background – the right to take time off to prioritize their health and the health of their families,” she said. “We know that it works.”

Some employers in cities like St. Paul and Minneapolis have cited the benefits of expanding earned sick and safe time benefits. Daniel Swenson-Klatt adopted the policy at Butter Bakery Café seven years ago, as city council members in Minneapolis were debating an ordinance. He called it “an investment that paid off.”

“In the end it provided my staff with safety and security. It reduced turnover,” he said. “There was an associated cost of hiring and turnover that just wasn’t there anymore. Over the years, it has added a little to my payroll costs, but it has brought back rewards far greater.”

Officials also emphasized that earned sick and safe time is not the same as paid family and medical leave, another workplace benefit state lawmakers voted into law last legislative session. The medical leave bill, which provides partial wage replacement for extended absences like the birth of a child, will go into effect in 2026.

Find more information about workers’ rights under the new ordinance on the Labor Department’s website.

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Retail janitors brace for busy holiday weekend with no holiday pay

November 22, 2023 by

Contracts covering about 8,000 members of SEIU Local 26 will expire this winter. (file photo)

With shoppers are poised to swarm Black Friday sales across the Twin Cities, it means a busy weekend of work for the union members who clean local big-box stores. And they’ll be doing it – on Thursday, anyway – without holiday pay.

That’s something members of Service Employees (SEIU) Local 26 intend to address in contract negotiations with cleaning companies, set to begin in the coming weeks, workers said during a virtual press conference yesterday.

“Us working during the holidays, it brings a lot of income to the stores and to our companies, but I wonder why they don’t invest that money in us, the workers,” said Local 26 member Deyanira Rodriguez, a janitor with Carlson Building Maintenance who cleans Target and other stores across the metro.

“We are the ones who are doing the job. We deserve more. That’s the fair thing to do, and we are going to get it.”

Local 26 called the press conference to kick off a contract campaign that will prioritize paid holidays, affordable health insurance and higher wages for about 700 retail cleaning workers in the bargaining unit.

Retail janitors’ hourly wages begin at $14.50. Local 26 President Greg Nammacher said most members of the bargaining unit earn $15 per hour or less, and just 5% can afford to access the employer-sponsored health plan.

“Remember, it is these workers who were in the grocery stores during the pandemic when it was at its worst, when we didn’t even know what it was, cleaning up the discarded masks and gloves,” Nammacher said. “They were called heroes. It is time now to show it.”

Union members will look to build on gains they have made since joining SEIU in 2016, after a historic, six-year organizing campaign facilitated by the Twin Cities worker center CTUL.

Before unionizing, retail janitors’ wages began at just $9.50 per hour, and worker complaints of wage theft – as stores switched cleaning contracts, or as contractors outsourced work to subcontractors – were common.

Now, retail cleaning workers are among nearly 8,000 Local 26 members whose contracts are set to expire this winter. Earlier this year, these retail and office janitors, security officers and airport workers began strategizing together – and with members of other local unions who will be at the bargaining table this winter – about ways to leverage their collective strength for greater gains. The coalition unites about 20,000 union members in the public and private sectors.

“We’re not going to be silent anymore when many of the corporations in Minnesota made record profits during the pandemic,” Nammacher said. “It is time all these workers in these different sectors are able to move forward.”

For Rodriguez, that means being able to enjoy holidays at home with her family without taking a hit on her paycheck, or getting premium pay on the holidays she does have to work.

“One of the things I remember about Christmas when I was a kid, it was so beautiful to welcome Christmas with a very warm hug within our family,” she said. “Now, I would like to be able to offer that to our kids.”

Filed Under: Labor Voices, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

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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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.

Filed Under: Organizing, Politics, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Trades push Royal Credit Union to ditch contractor accused of underpaying immigrant workers

June 1, 2022 by

Building Trades representatives join a protest outside Royal Credit Union in Inver Grove Heights.

Efforts to stop worker exploitation in the Twin Cities construction industry continued to gain momentum today, as construction unions called out Royal Credit Union for using an out-of-state masonry contractor accused by watchdog groups of underpaying immigrant laborers.

As the credit union cut the ribbon inside a newly acquired and refurbished branch in Inver Grove Heights, worker advocates set up a protest outside with signs, banners and an inflatable fat cat clutching a construction worker with one claw.

Unions accuse Eau Claire, Wis., contractor Stone Pro Concrete and Masonry of putting the squeeze on immigrants hired through the H-2B visa program, which allows employers to seek seasonal help when they are unable to hire enough U.S. workers.

The federal program requires employers to pay minimum wage rates based on the location and type of work performed. But after interviewing over a dozen H-2B visa holders on multiple Stone Pro job sites, representatives of the Laborers union (LIUNA) determined the contractor was underpaying workers by as much as $8 per hour.

“They bring on these workers as carpenter’s helpers, but they actually do concrete and masonry work, which is a totally different pay scale,” said Octavio Chung Bustamante, a marketing representative with LIUNA who has been investigating Stone Pro since 2019.

When Bustamante and other union representatives learned Stone Pro would be working on Royal’s new retail office in Little Canada, they took their findings to the credit union.

“We did reach out to Royal Credit Union on May 5,” Bustamante said. “We went to the branch manager in the St. Paul location, but we didn’t hear back.”

As a result, LIUNA and other unions active in the #NotOnMyWatch campaign decided to drop in on the ribbon cutting in Inver Grove Heights – and bring along their inflatable fat cat.

Organizers also circulated copies of anti-immigrant and Islamophobic Facebook content attributed to Stone Pro’s owner. Bustamante called it “hypocritical” for a company turning profits off immigrant labor – and contrary to Royal Credit Union’s stated values.

“It’s not about union or non-union,” Bustamante said. “It’s about making sure the industry is fair for everyone.”

The #NotOnMyWatch campaign brings together unions and community groups like Twin Cities worker center CTUL to identify cases of abuse and assist exploited workers in Minnesota’s construction industry.

“We’ve seen horrific abuse in this industry, from wage theft to dangerous working conditions,” CTUL Co-Director Merle Payne said. “So we’re calling on large developers and users like Royal Credit Union to take steps to use responsible contractors, to step up and make a difference.”

CTUL members who work in the multifamily residential construction industry launched a campaign last month to pressure large developers in the Twin Cities to partner with them in keeping wage theft, labor trafficking and other abuses off their job sites. They call it the Building Dignity and Respect program.

Organizers will announce the next steps in that campaign – including which contractors they will push to sign onto the new program – at a march and rally June 16, beginning at noon at Plymouth Congregational Church in Minneapolis.

Filed Under: Organizing, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Workers seek commitment from developers to build with ‘dignity and respect’

May 13, 2022 by

As allegations of wage theft continue to bubble up from the Twin Cities’ nonunion construction industry, a worker-led initiative aims to partner with developers to keep labor abuses off their job sites.

After months of behind-the-scenes planning and organizing, construction workers this week publicly invited local developers to join the Building Dignity and Respect (BDR) program and agree to uphold basic human-rights standards for everyone working on their projects, including workers employed by subcontractors.

Post-construction cleaning worker Daniel Sanchez estimates that he has lost over $110,000 to wage theft over 10 years working in the industry. He said layers of contractors and subcontractors should not shield developers from responsibility for abuses on their projects.

“Morally, developers have to be accountable for what’s happening on their job sites,” Sanchez said during an event to roll out the BDR program in Minneapolis yesterday. “We know we’re not going to change this industry by getting rid of just one subcontractor. Developers need to work with us to stop wage theft.”

Sanchez and other construction workers, who have been organizing with the local worker center CTUL, called out a handful of local developers by name, urging Doran Properties Group, MWF Properties, Solhem Companies, United Properties and YellowTree to come to the table with BDR now, before workers and their community allies ramp up the public pressure.

CTUL Co-Director Merle Payne said the campaign would target three large, multi-family construction developers – assuming they have not yet signed onto an agreement with the BDR – with a public action June 16. CTUL’s previous campaigns include a groundbreaking effort to pressure big-box retailers like Target and Best Buy take responsibility for the labor practices of its cleaning contractors.

“Housing developers in the Twin Cities are at a crossroads,” Payne said. “On one path, they can choose to ensure basic dignity and respect for the workers who develop their projects and who build our cities either by signing into the BDR program or by using 100% union labor. On the other path, developers can continue business as usual, maintaining an industry with rampant wage theft, dangerous working conditions and, at the extreme, labor trafficking.”

An advisory council assembled by county attorneys in Ramsey and Hennepin counties earlier this year approved a report estimating that wage theft costs construction workers over $3 million in wages each year, and diverts over $11 million from Social Security and Medicare funds.

While prosecutors and state regulators have begun stepping up efforts to hold contractors accountable, the BDR program is setting out to stop wage theft before it happens.

Developers that participate in BDR would sign a legally binding agreement to protect workers on their projects from wage theft, physical and sexual abuse and human trafficking, and to provide them with safe working conditions and fair pay.

The BDR Standards Council would provide education to workers about their rights and protections, and monitor participating developers’ job sites to ensure compliance.

“If a contractor refuses to maintain compliance, they will no longer be able to work for developers that participate in the Building Dignity and Respect program,” said Doug Mork, executive director of the Standards Council.

The program follows what’s known as the “Worker-driven Social Responsibility model,” which agricultural workers in Florida successfully used to raise standards in an industry with similarly murky relationships between landowners, labor brokers, contractors and workers.

CTUL member Pedro Carbajal, a painter on local construction sites, was among local workers who traveled to Florida for a firsthand look at how the model works.

“If they can do it there, we can do it here,” he said. “We may work in different industries – farm work and construction – but what unites us is the cause, what unites us is the suffering we’ve lived. And together, we can change this.”

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: , , , , ,

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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